China could match US in military conflict thanks to shipbuilding strength, analysts say

Observers said China’s ability to rapidly reconstitute its combat losses may give it an advantage, including against ‘hellscape’ strategy

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China has launched its 10th Type 055 destroyer, the country’s most advanced warship and prime escort of its aircraft carriers. Photo: Weibo

Seong Hyeon Choi

Published: 10:00pm, 17 Jun 2024Updated: 11:57pm, 17 Jun 2024

China’s naval expansion and bolstering of its shipbuilding capabilities may give the PLA a strategic edge in a potential conflict, including the “hellscape strategy” floated recently by the US, military analysts said.

Raymond Kuo, director of the Rand Corporation’s Taiwan Initiative, said that China, alongside Japan and South Korea, has the “largest shipbuilding industry in the world” and can produce completed hulls at a faster rate than the US.

While “American ships tend to be more complex and have greater displacement … China’s ability to relatively rapidly produce naval ships means that it can reconstitute any combat losses more quickly than the United States can,” he said.

“[The PLA] have an additional advantage in that any conflict over, say, Taiwan or the South China Sea would be much closer to their shores.”

According to an analysis of satellite imagery published by the Paris-based Naval News in late May, China’s 10th Type 055 destroyer – its most advanced warship and prime aircraft carrier escort – was recently launched by naval builder Dalian Shipbuilding.

Since the first Type 055 was commissioned in 2020, the first batch of eight are in service and construction of the second batch is well under way, with the ninth reportedly launched late last year.