Chinese government news service Xinhua reports that a newly built aircraft carrier was floated in the sea at Dalian (also known as Port Arthur). The ship must "undergo equipment debugging, outfitting and mooring trials." As yet, the Soviet-built Liaoning is China's only operating aircraft carrier.
According to Shanghaiist and Voice of America (U.S. government outlet), the carrier is named Shandong. Some other reports said that it is unnamed.
Additional coverage:
Previously on SoylentNews: China Moving Full Speed Ahead in Construction of Aircraft Carriers
Chinese State Media Boasts About its New Electronic Reconnaissance Ship
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday April 28 2017, @04:13AM (2 children)
Either that or a damn clever tactic, buy a direlect, rusting Soviet-era hulk and turn it into something that looks like a carrier, then watch the US spend a hundred or a thousand times more building actual carriers in a panicked response to prove that their penis is bigger. The DF-26 has (apparently) recently become operational, either that or the DF-21D "carrier killer", and you've got a pretty good ROI in terms of how much money you've convinced the US to waste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @06:19PM (1 child)
Doubt it. The carriers are planned decades in advance. They are not in any response to anything China or any other country has been doing.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday April 29 2017, @02:13AM
Check the history of the Liaoning/Shandong/Yu-shiang Whole Fish/Varyag/Riga, that thing's been on the books since the early 1980s, with construction starting in the mid-80s. That's easily "decades in advance".
In any case, have you ever known the Navy to not go running to Washington in response to just about anything naval in any other country demanding moar carriers, moar jets, moar subs, moar littoral combat ships, but above all MOAR MONEY? I actually have no idea whether China is doing this on purpose, but if they are it's a damn effective tactic.