China’s PLA Rapidly Expands Shipyards to Support World’s Largest Ever Military Shipbuilding Program

One of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s most prominent shipyards, the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, has undergone a major expansion, as the service’s fleet expansion program has continued to place considerable demands for larger and more capable warships to be manufactured in ever larger numbers. The shipyard opened in 2008 and is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and its capacity is estimated by the prominent Washington based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to have expanded by 64%. When interviewed by U.S. media regarding the expansion of Jiangnan and its role in the modernisation of the PLA Navy’s surface fleet, CSIS fellow Matthew Funaiole stated that the facility “is responsible for some of China's most advanced warships ... The assets produced at the shipyard form an important part of the PLA Navy’s modernisation.”

Chinese Type 052D Class Destroyer

While the capabilities of China’s surface navy were negligible at the end of the Cold War, acquisitions of advanced Soviet and later Russian technologies, massive investments in research and development led it to quickly close the technological gap with both Russia and the United States - both of which formerly held an undisputed lead in the field. Without facing the inefficiencies of the U.S. defence procurement system, which have seriously hampered American efforts to modernise its own surface fleet as exemplified by the Zumwalt Class destroyer, Littoral Class combat ship and Gerald Ford Class supercarrier, or the budgetary constraints faced by Russia’s own armed forces, China’s Navy has rapidly expanded to become second only to the United States in its capabilities. While the U.S. Navy has the benefit of decades of cumulative high spending, meaning it has a massive fleet of warships which are several decades old, the rapid speed at which China is both manufacturing cutting edge new warships and manufacturing them - combined with the far grater and more consistent annual growth of the country’s defence budget - means that the PLA Navy may well go on to surpass its U.S. counterpart in future.

U.S. Navy Zumwalt Class Destroyer

The PLA Navy reportedly commissioned 32 new warships from 2016-2017 alone, and this number is likely to continue to grow as shipyards expand. The expansion of the PLA Navy has been referred to by Western experts as the fastest growth of any navy in world history, and has considerable implications for the global balance of power at sea. With Chinese Premier Xi Jinping having particularly stressed the urgency of expanding the Navy’s capabilities, it remains increasingly well positioned to engage the U.S. on an equal footing in the Asia-Pacific - particularly considering that the PLA is capable of concentrating its assets to the region in a way the U.S., with defence commitments across the globe, cannot. 

Type 055 Class Destroyers 

While the PLA’s largest warships, the Type 002 and Type 003 Class aircraft carriers, are being manufactured at other shipyards, Jiangnan is producing state of the art heavy destroyers which are key to providing the Navy with a technological edge over potential rivals. These include the Type 052D and Type 055 Class warships, the former which first entered service in 2014 and the latter which saw its first sea trails in 2018. Both warships deploy state of the art weapons systems which considerably surpass their Western analogues - with the failed American Zumwalt Class destroyer program having failed to develop a similarly capable warship. Type Type 055 is considered a heavier counterpart to the Type 052D, and is the largest and most heavily armed destroyer in the world surpassing previous record holders including the American Arleigh Burke Class and even the South Korean Sejong the Great Class. Where China’s carrier and submarine fleets are currently severely lacking relative to their U.S. counterparts, the superior capabilities of the PLA Navy’s new destroyers will provide a key edge over any potential adversaries which will heavily compensate for these shortcomings.