Two Chinese carriers have deployed to sea as HMS Prince of Wales approaches

Telegraph

a day ago

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has just executed a historic move: deploying both of its operational aircraft carriers simultaneously beyond the second island chain for the first time.
This dual deployment – featuring the CNS Liaoning and CNS Shandong – marks a deliberate step-change in PLAN ambitions. The Liaoning task group, operating east of the Philippines and potentially around Guam, is engaged in its longest-ever mission and is now fully embedded in blue-water operations. Meanwhile, the Shandong, alongside a flotilla including a Type 055 destroyer, Type 052D destroyer, and Type 054A frigates, has been tracked conducting sustained carrier flight operations within Japan's EEZ.
This is a Chinese naval deployment on a scale never seen before. China has deployed four big-deck warships – two carriers and two amphibious assault ships – across a total surface battle force that includes over 50 fixed-wing aircraft, four Type 055 cruisers, four Type 052D destroyers, and seven 054A frigates. The warships have nearly 1,000 vertical launch system (VLS) missile cells.
This isn't just a show of numbers. Various online observers suggest that the current operation represents about half of China's Type 055 fleet and roughly 15 per cent of its Type 052D and 054A ships – a deliberate concentration of capability. The upcoming commissioning of the CNS Fujian – China's third and most advanced carrier, featuring catapults allowing a bigger and more capable air wing – will make the PLAN without question the second most powerful navy on the planet.
What's less visible but equally significant is the all but certain presence of China's new 093B nuclear attack submarines, operating quietly beneath the waves. It is safe to assume that each PLAN group, just like an American or British one, will have a nuclear sub keeping watch below.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence has tracked more than 1,350 PLAN vessels operating around the island in 2025 – up 26 per cent year-on-year. During the last week of May alone, over 70 ships were observed across the broader region.
This isn't an exercise. It's a pressure campaign. And it's sending signals not just to Taipei, but to everyone.
So what now for the United States and its allies?
At a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan was clear: 'We need more ships, a stronger industrial base, a warfighter culture, and real investment in our people. If it doesn't add to our readiness, we will not fund it.' It's no surprise that this punchy quote appeared in our Strategic Defence Review published last week.
As far as the US are concerned, it's not just rhetoric. It's a call to action. As Tyler Rogoway, editor-in-chief of the The War Zone, aptly put it: 'China is pumping out surface combatants at a bewildering pace. Every day we lose ground. Qualitative advantage isn't everything anymore.'
The US Navy cannot assume that technological superiority alone will compensate for its coming numerical inferiority. Technically the Chinese navy is already bigger than the USN by count of ships, though the US fleet still leads on more important metrics like tonnage and VLS cells. But at current build rates that's set to change.
America needs allies. Dr Ely Ratner argues in 'The Case for a Pacific Defence Pact' for a decisive shift from America's post-WWII 'hub-and-spoke' bilateral treaty system toward a more cohesive multilateral alliance. Not an Asian Nato, but something leaner: a tightly coordinated mutual defence agreement among the US, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. Such a pact, Ratner contends, would offer strategic clarity: 'Maintaining the status quo emboldens Beijing. A defensive pact raises the cost of aggression.'
Tom Shugar, a retired US submariner, warns that the PLA isn't just preparing for regional superiority – it's 'rehearsing to challenge for control of the central Pacific.'
I would argue that Chinese ambition goes further even than this. The day may not be so very far off when the fourth PLAN aircraft carrier, set to be the largest in the world, starts conducting flying operations in the English Channel. That monster ship and its accompanying group will outgun the entire present day British armed forces.
The PLAN's dual-carrier deployment is not just a flex. It's a trial run for a future where China's navy isn't constrained to its littorals but actively contests maritime supremacy in waters once dominated by the US and allied Navies: one day, waters all around the world, not just in the Pacific.
Right now the Royal Navy's Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Prince of Wales, is in the Indian Ocean headed straight for China and the Island Chains. With her complement of fifth-generation stealth fighters she's a match for either the Liaoning or the Shandong – though not the soon-to-arrive Fujian and definitely not the under-construction, so far nameless giant supercarrier.
Those who think Russia is the only threat, or whose foreign policy stops at Dover, need to lift up their heads and look out into the big world. China is not going to be 'over there' for much longer. We need to do as the Americans are doing, before the dragon is 'over here'.
And as for those who think the age of the aircraft carrier is over: the fastest growing navy in the world emphatically doesn't agree with you.