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Amber Wang

The PLA Navy’s aircraft carrier base in Hainan could prove vital to the fleet’s survivability and crucial in countering US containment along the first island chain in wartime, according to a prominent mainland Chinese magazine.
Such a posture could also support efforts to impose a maritime blockade around Taiwan in the event of a conflict, Defence Review reported this month.
China now operates three aircraft carriers: the Liaoning, the Shandong, and the most advanced, the catapult-equipped Fujian, a vessel commissioned last year and with its homeport in a military port in Sanya in southern Hainan province.
The Sanya naval complex includes the Yulin Naval Base in the city’s eastern suburbs, which serves as an important surface fleet and submarine support facility.
The country’s second carrier Shandong is also mainly based in Sanya, while the Liaoning’s homeport is the city of Qingdao in eastern Shandong province, which is also the headquarters of the navy’s North Sea Fleet.


The Hainan base could be considered more strategically important given its geographic location, especially as China faced persistent pressure from the US and its allies in the first island chain, the magazine said.
It also said that “in wartime, the first island chain would continue to exert a constraining effect on China”.
The first island chain, stretching from the Kuril Islands through Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines to the northern edge of Indonesia and Malaysia, is a concept developed by US strategists during the Cold War, initially focused on containing the Soviet Union and later applied mainly to mainland China.
According to Defence Review: “The main challenge facing PLA Navy carrier operations near the first island chain in wartime is the limited maritime operating space, which reduces the ability of carrier groups to conduct manoeuvres to avoid hostile air power.”
Previously, the magazine said, China’s carrier training and deployments were mainly centred around Qingdao and Dalian, which lie along the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea.
Dalian houses the country’s major naval shipbuilding and maintenance infrastructure.
These locations are within the direct reach of US and Japanese shore-based missile and bomber forces, according to Defence Review.
By contrast, the naval base in Hainan was noteworthy for its position facing the wider South China Sea, as well as its distance from the main concentration of US and Japanese strike assets, it added.




In a wartime scenario, People’s Liberation Army carriers operating from Hainan could transit through the Bashi Channel – a strategic waterway between Taiwan and the northern Philippines – as well as the Balintang Channel, also located in the northern Philippines, to the Pacific Ocean.
According to Defence Review, the two channels are deemed relatively less heavily defended segments of US and Japanese first island chain coverage, compared with heavily monitored areas such as the Miyako Strait between Miyako Island and Okinawa in Japan.
Furthermore, China has deployed shore-based air power, missile forces and surveillance systems in Hainan and across some South China Sea islands to counter possible US strikes and to support carrier movement in the western Pacific.
In recent years, as part of the PLA Navy’s broader push to field a “blue-water” navy, its carriers have increasingly conducted training deployments in the western Pacific, including the latest drills by the Liaoning that kicked off on Tuesday.
The magazine also highlighted the relevance of the Hainan base in a Taiwan Strait contingency.
“In a Taiwan Strait conflict scenario, carrier strike groups operating from Hainan could advance from the south and southwest of Taiwan to help establish maritime and air control,” Defence Review said.
“Such deployments could complicate or disrupt US and Japanese reinforcement efforts towards Taiwan via the Philippines and the Bashi Channel, while also coordinating with [People’s Liberation Army] forces operating in the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait to form a broader encirclement posture.
“In this context, Chinese carrier groups would no longer function merely as vulnerable targets within the first island chain but instead as a central component of Beijing’s efforts to deter or deny external military intervention in a Taiwan contingency.”
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.


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Sanya naval complex in country’s island province gives warships room to manoeuvre and counter US first island chain, report says


Sanya naval complex in country’s island province gives warships room to manoeuvre and counter US first island chain, report says.


Why Hainan holds the key to survival for China’s aircraft carriers

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Sanya naval complex in country’s island province gives warships room to manoeuvre and counter US first island chain, report says

Sanya naval complex in country’s island province gives warships room to manoeuvre and counter US first island chain, report says