China Boosts Naval Power with Advanced Warship Construction Amid Global Tensions

China's policy of global domination has made it a pariah in the world. Chinese military experts say the PLA's warship-building prowess gives it a huge strategic advantage. Reports indicate China is on a warship-building spree to fight wars in different corners of the world.

This shows China's aspiration to become the global hegemon, a goal Chinese historians have written about for years. China is ramping up its military hardware because the US has adopted a "hellscape strategy" against it. China aims to build the world's largest navy and has opened its factories to full capacity to achieve this.

Raymond Kuo, director of the Taiwan Initiative at the Rand Corporation, said that China, along with Japan and South Korea, has "the world’s largest shipbuilding industry" and can out-produce the US in terms of tonnage. While US ships tend to be more complex, China's capacity to build naval vessels quickly means it could replace battle losses faster than the US.

China does not allow any other country to grow in peace, especially countries like India with ambitious growth targets. Much of China's focus is on being able to fight a war over Taiwan or the Philippines, closer to its shores, Kuo said.

In late May, Paris-based Naval News reported that China had launched another Type 055 destroyer, its most advanced and powerful warship. Built at China’s Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company, this takes China’s tally of Type 055 destroyers to 10. The first Type 055 destroyer was commissioned in 2020.

The first batch of eight destroyers is already in service while the second batch is being built rapidly. The ninth ship was commissioned last year and the 10th this year. Naval News also claimed that Dalian Shipbuilding has commissioned five Type 052 destroyers, seen in dry dock where China refitted its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies said that China’s formidable shipbuilding industry provides it with a strategic advantage in conflicts lasting longer than a few weeks. This means China can keep building warships during wars, giving it an edge over its enemies.

If a Chinese warship is damaged in battle, China can quickly replace or repair it and send it back into battle. This is not the case with the US. If a US warship is damaged, it will take much longer for the US to replace it than it would take China.

The US has adopted what is called the "hellfire strategy" in the Taiwan Strait to counter China and deter it from attacking Taiwan. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, confirmed this strategy involves developing swarming lethal drones and missiles to stop Chinese ships with drone attacks.

China has made it clear that it will not rule out using force to capture Taiwan. Paparo said that in case of a war, he plans to launch lethal drone attacks on the Chinese fleet to buy time and defend Taiwan. Defence experts are sceptical about this strategy.

Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, believes Washington will have to do "a lot more work" before implementing this strategy. This includes increasing stockpiles of munitions and producing drones in large numbers.

Koh said that if you want to defend Taiwan, you have to neutralise China’s capacity not just to seize it but also to sustain the war effort. This means taking out their shipyards so they can’t produce new ships and ramping up your own shipbuilding capacity.

In 2021, the US Naval Institute noted that the US has only seven shipyards capable of building large warships while China has 20 with potential for more. Additionally, China has dozens of commercial shipyards that could be used to construct warships if needed.

The geography of the Taiwan theatre favours China while the US will have to project power across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The Type 055 destroyer is referred to as a missile cruiser because of its size and capabilities.

The destroyer is 180 metres long with a beam of 20 metres and full-load displacement around 13,000 tonnes. It has 112 vertical launch system (VLS) cells which can accommodate various weapons including HHQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missiles and YJ-18 anti-ship missiles.

In April 2022, footage released by the PLA showed the Type 055 test-firing China’s latest hypersonic anti-ship missile, the YJ-21. Koh said that China has consistently imported foreign technology and then localised it, making Chinese shipyards far more capable and aggressive.