China officially launched its third aircraft carrier on Friday, during a ceremony organized on the occasion of the launching of the building in a shipyard in Shanghai, announced the new China agency. The ship is the second aircraft carrier to be entirely made by China and is far more technologically advanced than its predecessors. It will only be handed over to the naval forces after several tests at sea.
New China did not specify the expected date for the entry into service of the building. But it will not be immediate and should occur in the coming years. The aircraft carrier was named “Fujian” after a Chinese province, like its predecessors “Liaoning” and “Shandong”. Its launch comes amid heightened Sino-American tensions around Taiwan, the island with a population of 24 million that China considers its historic territory.
Hostile to the United States-Taiwan rapprochement of recent years, the Chinese navy has several times passed its aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait which separates the Chinese mainland from the island territory. Main development on this third Chinese aircraft carrier compared to the two previous ones: it will be much larger and has a catapult system, according to New China.