Thread by @WilliamYang120

“#China continued to beef up its Naval presence in 2022, indicating its increasing ability to execute an invasion of #Taiwan, a retired American naval captain warned in an article published earlier this month.”

focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait/2…

In the article in the online monthly magazine "Proceedings" published by the United States Naval Institute, retired Captain James E. Fanell noted that China commissioned 10 warships and one submarine in 2022 and ….

… that the People's Liberation Army is continuing to commission the most annual tonnage globally, as it has done for at least the last five years.

The PLA is also continuing to outproduce the U.S. Navy in total numbers of ships, tonnage and supersonic antiship cruise missiles, with the outlook for PLA production and commissioning in 2023 on track to exceed that of 2022, Fanell said.

The highlight of the PLA Navy's (PLAN) shipbuilding last year was the launch of China's third and "most technologically advanced aircraft carrier," the 80,000-ton Type 003 Fujian, he said.

Hailing the carrier as the largest warship an Asian country has ever built, Fanell noted that in 10 years, China had gone from having no aircraft carriers to having three in the water.

The 50,000-ton Liaoning and Shandong are assessed as fully operational, while the Fujian is set to conduct official sea trials later this year, he said.

All these efforts have highlighted the PLAN's expanded "far seas operations" highlighted by its carrier operations outside the first island chain, Fanell said.

With the PLA's "Taiwan-focused combined arms firepower exercise" and increased joint operations with Russia and others, the PLA has demonstrated "why it may be the most dominant naval force in the western Pacific and …

… is able to execute all orders -- including the increasing likelihood of an invasion of Taiwan," he warned.