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The 89-metre (292-foot) ship would be operational by year-end with a top speed of 18 knots... They're not even up to our WWII speeds.

The Midway class carriers of WWII did 33 knots as well.

In fact, the output increase, thanks to improvements in the turbines and boilers, out-reached the steam increase by some margin, show in the progresses made there. According to this, the Midway class were able to reach still their designed fleet speed of 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph).
Snip...Compared to the previous Essex, they measured 901 ft or 274.3m long at the waterline and or 968 feets 295 m overall. 292 ft - 18 knots - China, 2022
901 ft - 33 knots - USA, 1945

Your image is appropriate.

They're not even up to our WWII speeds.

It is not a WW2 fleet carrier. It does not need to run at high speed into the wind to get enough air flow under the wings of heavily laden bombers to get them airborne. It does not need to be able to outrun 30+ knot Kongō-class Battle Cruisers, with 16” guns. You might as well chuckle about how the ships we used in the SpanishAmerican War had more armor.

Could any of our carriers sway it out of existence with barely a thought? Yes. But what if China’s anti-carrier missiles keep our carriers a few hundred miles offshore? Read up on the Chinese drones swarming US Navy ships off the coast of California. There is good reason to believe that any small surface ship near one of these will be lost. And given that they are relatively small, cheap to build, and man, think about the implications of China having a few dozen of them.