CHINA's first home-built aircraft carrier, the loaded 70,000-ton displacement Shandong, will be deployed in the contested waters, where Beijing has asserted territorial claims, reports the Wall Street Journal.
President Xi Jinping boarded the carrier to attend a commissioning ceremony with 5,000 others at the naval base in Sanya, in the southern island Province of Hainan in the latest endeavour to become a first rate naval power.
'Aircraft carriers are symbolic of a country's military strength,' CCTV said. 'Our country may have started late, but our development momentum is swift. After the first home-built aircraft carrier, there will be more and more advanced carriers to follow.'
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President Xi Jinping boarded the carrier to attend a commissioning ceremony with 5,000 others at the naval base in Sanya, in the southern island Province of Hainan in the latest endeavour to become a first rate naval power.
'Aircraft carriers are symbolic of a country's military strength,' CCTV said. 'Our country may have started late, but our development momentum is swift. After the first home-built aircraft carrier, there will be more and more advanced carriers to follow.'
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