Carriers are the major force projection platform any significant force projection endeavour requires. Strategic bombing and cruise missile lobbing doesn't count. I mean fight anywhere and stay around kind of force projection.
China's only real necessity in any serious force projection is simply to keep trade and supply routes and sealines open for itself. On the energy front this is actually more secure than it is for Europe and even the US. As long as China has money (that's worth making for producers) and industrial capacity to supply energy producers with products, it will remain even more important a customer than the US.
It also doesn't only rely on sea routes to access energy and it is on neutral to great terms with Iran, KSA, Russia, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Latin America. China itself has been weaning off coal but has one of the world's largest reserves of coal for military situations and backup.
What China lacks is raw material like iron ore which it needs to but from Australia but there are various sources for raw materials. Keeping supply and trade lines open during war is the purpose of China's required power projection. Carriers do indeed play a massive role in this. It is also why they are increasingly necessary for PLAN and China in the era of hostility form the US. This wasn't necessary in the past as trade lines aren't threatened.
Food security China excels in these days. Manufacturing and technology actually China is far more self dependent than many realise but in many fields they are not entirely self dependent. Though even in those fields, cutting all ties now hurt the suppliers just as much if not more so unless global supply chains totally move away from China. Doing that require many years to decades and cost an economic price that will collapse entire nations. So they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Smart money is planning or putting hedge into action. Some will jump onboard with China beneath the facade to redeem and keep as much as they can while paying lip service to the clearly already dead empire.
Without geniuses constantly migrating and working in the west, they are done for. The numbers for this have declined so dramatically it's nearly criminal how much of it is ignored and understated.
The concern is that China is gaining too much ground at a faster rate than its blue water navy forms. Right now, PLAN is no match for USN outside of first island chain where it is at least within cover of land based HGV and missiles, much of plaaf, supporting industries, and military supply lines. If the US cuts off many sea routes as a last ditch effort, China would not challenge it unless it is daring to use long range HGVs and ballistic missiles essentially opening the war. It may simply choose to let the US shoot everyone in the foot. Such a supply issue would certainly collapse entire nations including ones like Australia, at the very least economically. Sorry but India is not even going to be buying 10% the value of what China buys from Aus, they are already buying at capacity. Not going to suddenly become a developed 10 trillion dollar economy with the same industrial output as China not even in 20 years.
