Satellite images reveal China’s new move with two maritime giants on the horizon

In one of the images, supposedly taken by satellite on Thursday, the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, was moored across the pier from the Fujian, which was officially commissioned last month, at a naval base in Qingdao, in Shandong province on China’s east coast.

On Friday, maritime safety authorities in Dalian – about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Qingdao – said that a military activity would be carried out in the Bohai Strait and the northern Yellow Sea for a week starting at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday.The drills are expected to affect local residents and cargo traffic, as vessels will be barred from entering the area.

Located at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, with the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west, Dalian guards the entrance to the Bohai Sea and hosts a major naval and shipbuilding hub of the navy.

Suspicions are focused on Taiwan. Photos taken from F-16 fighter jets indicated that the Fujian was not carrying any carrier-based aircraft when it passed through the strait. The island’s military also “monitored the operations of the People’s Liberation Army at all times,” Taiwan’s defense minister, Wellington Koo Li-hsiung, said. Civilian experts likewise agree that the docking of the Fujian alongside the Liaoning could be preparation for joint training operations.

The world’s largest conventionally powered warship

The Fujian is the most advanced aircraft carrier of China’s People’s Liberation Army. It is the largest conventionally powered warship in the world and is equipped with electromagnetic catapults, making China the second country after the United States to deploy this technology. However, its crew has far less operational experience than that of the Liaoning, which entered service 13 years ago.

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