China has launched its first home-made aircraft carrier which it named after its closest province to Taiwan.

The Fuijian, China’s third and most advanced aircraft carrier has been wholly designed and built domestically, according to state media.

It comes as Beijing continues to bolster its navy amid rising tensions with Washington and other Asia-Pacific nations.

The vessel, equipped with the latest aircraft-launch technology and weaponry, is named Fujian after a Chinese coastal province, similar to its predecessors, Liaoning and Shandong.

However, the name is politically charged owing to the fact that Fujian is China’s nearest province to Taiwan, separated by a strait that is only 130 kilometres wide at its narrowest point.

The timing of the launch comes amid increased fears in the West that Beijing may attempt to stage a take-over of Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy China considers a breakaway province.

The ship was launched from the Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai in a pomp-filled ceremony. Sailors clad in white uniforms applauded under colourful clouds of smoke as water jets arched over the vessel. Its flight deck was adorned with colourful bunting and large banners bearing political slogans such as: “Deliver combat power – fighting to fully build a world-class navy.”

The new vessel could be a “game changer” for the Chinese navy, Collin Koh, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told Agence France-Presse.

With a displacement of more than 80,000 tonnes, it is comparable in size to the US Navy carriers.

Compared to its predecessors, Fujian has an upgraded electromagnetic catapult-assisted launch system, similar to the one used on the newest US carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

China’s first carrier, Liaoning, was a repurposed Soviet ship while its second, Shandong, was built domestically but based upon a Soviet design. Both employed a so-called “ski-jump” launch method for aircraft, with a ramp at the end of a short runway to help planes take off.

Fujian’s use of a catapult means the ship will be able to launch a broader variety of aircraft, which is necessary for China to be able to project naval power at a greater range, Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defence intelligence company Janes, told the Associated Press.

“These catapults allow aircraft deployed to carry a more extensive load of weapons in addition to external fuel tanks,” Rahmat said.

“Once it is fully operational, the People's Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third carrier would also be able to deploy a more complete suite of aircraft associated with carrier strike group operations including carrier onboard delivery transport and airborne early warning and control airframes, such as the KJ-600.”

Nevertheless, unlike the US Navy’s nuclear-powered supercarriers, the Fujian uses conventional propulsion. Nuclear vessels have significant advantages in that they can operate for long periods without the need to dock and refuel.

Fujian will carry out mooring tests and navigation tests after the launch, state media said.

The ship’s launch was initially expected on April 23 for the PLAN’s 73rd anniversary but was postponed at least twice due to strict Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai.

Xi Jinping, China’s president, has made the military’s modernisation one of his priorities. In the decade he has been in power, China has doubled down on sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea and expanded its presence into the Indian Ocean and beyond.

It set up its first overseas base, in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa in 2017. Earlier this year, Beijing signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, stoking fears among some nations that it would gain an outpost in the South Pacific. China is also reportedly building a naval military base in Cambodia.

The US Department of Defence said in a report to Congress last year that the carrier development program was critical to the Chinese navy’s continued development into a global force, “gradually extending its operational reach beyond East Asia into a sustained ability to operate at increasingly longer ranges”.

The PLAN is the world’s largest navy numerically, with about 355 ships, however, it remains behind the US in carriers.

The US Navy has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers as well as nine amphibious assault ships that can carry helicopters and vertical-takeoff fighter jets.