China Launches New Generation Combat Ship

China launched a new assault ship capable of launching fighter jets on Friday.

• The Sichuan, China’s largest combat ship so far, is designed to launch ground troops while providing air support for troops.

• The ship has an electromagnetic catapult that can launch heavy fighter jets off its deck, along with arrestor technology that allows the jets to land back on its deck.

World’s largest navy: China has been working hard to modernize and expand its naval forces over the past decade. It has the largest navy in the world in terms of number of warships, and it continues to expand and update it in a challenge to the military supremacy of the United States.

The Sichuan launch comes right after reports of China building a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Steering toward war: China has used its naval power to intimidate several nations around the South China Sea, waters which it claims almost entirely as its own. China has especially threatened Taiwan, claiming the island should unite with the Chinese mainland.

In 2016, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote:

China is intimidating the nations of Southeast Asia into submission to its will. It is forcing these countries to do what it wants. Everything is headed in the direction of war.
—“China Is Steering the World Toward War”