china has successfully completed its second Aircraft Carrier Shandong which is six times more powerful than its first carrier the Liaoning and it is expected to be ready for operations in 2020. This will cause a huge impact on US influence in South East Asia, especially as Trump slowly loses grip on ASEAN countries due to trade agreement problems.
The South China Sea will effectively be dominated by China
The immediate impact of having two super carriers in the seas near China is the domination of the area. This is the reaction of many military and political analysts covering the issue.
China is showing that it has no peers among its Asian countries.
Presently, the South China Sea is a highly contested body of water which is claimed by seven countries. However, due to Beijing's immense naval supremacy, China is almost unrivaled. Only the United States has the capability of neutralizing the Chinese influence in the area and that is through the help of the Philippines. However, the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte parted ways with the US during Obama's administration. This left a void in the contested wars, which China gladly took advantage of.
China assured neighboring countries of non-militaristic ambition despite rapid naval expansion
The Chinese government reiterated to neighboring countries like Taiwan, that the naval development is purely defensive in nature.
According to estimates made by Taiwanese media, Chinese naval expenditure rose up to three times larger than figures officially released by Beijing, placing it roughly at $2 trillion. Also, China plans to build four carriers, all equipped with modern weaponry and with state of the art carrier jet fighters.
China deemed it necessary to increase its navy's size as a self-defense measure but some countries like Taiwan grow weary.
Having such enormous capabilities in the hands of a rising superpower bent to claiming everything near its borders is frightening.
US response to China naval buildup
US officials have yet to comment on China's naval build up but at the moment, these Chinese carriers are still smaller in scale compared to the super carriers of the US navy.
At the moment, the United States has 10 aircraft carriers and four more is planned to be built. Trump lauds US carriers as being the best in the world and hopes to sway the balance of power in Asia back to America.
It is important for the US to gain dominance in Asian waters, especially in the Korean peninsula as threats of attack coming from Pyongyang needs to be neutralized. At the moment, only the USS Carl Vinson is officially deployed into the waters near North Korea.
