Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Tuesday attended the commissioning of China’s first entirely homebuilt aircraft carrier, underscoring the country’s rise as a regional naval power at a time of tensions with the US and others over Taiwan, trade and the South China Sea.
The Shandong is the second Chinese aircraft carrier to enter service after the Liaoning, which was originally purchased as a hulk from Ukraine and entirely refurbished.
State media reported that about 5,000 representatives from the naval forces and aircraft carrier construction groups attended the commissioning ceremony at a naval base near Sanya, China.
The base in Hainan Province opens onto the South China Sea, where China is engaged in an increasingly heated dispute over territory, and undersea oil and gas resources.
China’s claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway, through which passes an estimated US$5 trillion in trade annually, overlaps partially or in whole with five other governments, including Taiwan.
State TV footage showed Xi being applauded as he boarded the ship to present a flag and certificate, sign the log and meet the sailors.
“Commending China’s achievements in aircraft carrier construction, Xi encouraged them to continue their efforts to make new contributions in the service of the [Chinese Communist] Party and the people,” Xinhua news agency reported.
Like the Liaoning, the Shandong is named after a northern province and is based on a Soviet design with a ski jump-style flight deck for takeoffs rather than the flat decks used by much larger US aircraft carriers.
It is powered by a conventional oil-fueled steam turbine power plant, rather than the nuclear fuel US carriers and submarines use.
The 50,000-tonne Shandong last year completed sea trials before returning to its construction yard in the northern port of Dalian.
It last month sailed through the Taiwan Strait on its way to Hainan, prompting Taiwan’s military to scramble ships and airplanes to monitor its passage.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2