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.
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