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BEIJING: China’s second aircraft carrier entered service on Tuesday, adding major firepower to its military ambitions as it faces tensions with self-ruled Taiwan as well as the US and regional neighbours around the disputed South China Sea.
The commissioning of the ship, which has been named the Shandong, puts China in a small club of nations with multiple aircraft carriers and the country is reportedly building a third.
China’s first domestically built carrier was delivered and commissioned to the People’s Liberation Army navy in Sanya, on the southern island of Hainan, at a ceremony attended by President Xi Jinping, state media said.
Around 5,000 people attended the ceremony, singing the national anthem and raised the national flag, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Hainan province is in the South China Sea east of Vietnam, which has competing claims in the waterway along with China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei.
In November China confirmed that the aircraft carrier had sailed through the Taiwan Strait for “routine” training and tests, drawing the ire of Taipei.
China, which sees democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, has stepped up military drills around the island since Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016.
China has one other carrier — the Liaoning, a repurposed Soviet carrier bought from Ukraine that went into service in 2012.
Big ambitions
Beijing has been ramping up its military ambitions and in July outlined a national defence plan to build a modern, high-tech army.
China’s defence spending is second only to the United States — though it still lags far behind — and it said earlier this year it planned to raise it by 7.5% in 2019.
In March, Beijing said it would spend 1.19 trillion yuan (RM735.7 billion) on defence in 2019, after it increased its outlay by 8.1% to 1.11 trillion yuan (RM650 billion) in 2018, according to a government report presented at the start of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC).
The nationalistic Global Times said Tuesday that thanks to “significant improvements,“ the second carrier is “not a copy of the first one and is much more powerful.”
A US think-tank reported in May that recent satellite photographs indicated that construction of a third Chinese aircraft carrier was well under way.
Adding a third aircraft carrier will put China in an elite club among naval powers but it will still lag far behind the United States, which has 10 nuclear-powered Nimitz-class “supercarriers” currently in service. — AFP
