China's first aircraft carrier has held its inaugural sea trial.
The long-awaited debut of the vessel, refitted from a former Soviet craft, marked a step forward in China's long-term plan to build a carrier force that can project power into the Asian region.
The carrier ‘left its shipyard in Dalian Port in northeast Liaoning province on Wednesday morning to start its first sea trial,’ said the official Xinhua news agency, describing the trip as only a tentative trial run for the unfinished ship.
‘Military sources said that the first sea trial was in line with the schedule of the carrier refitting project and would not take a long time,’ the agency said.
The aircraft carrier, which is about 300m long, ploughed through fog and sounded its horn three times as it left the dock, Xinhua said on its military news blog.
In an interview published this week, Chinese navy Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo said his country intended to build an air carrier group, but the task would be long and difficult.
‘The aircraft carriers will form a very strong battle group,’ Yin told the China Economic Weekly.
‘But the construction and functional demands of an aircraft carrier are extremely complex,’ he told the magazine.
Training crew and, eventually, pilots for the carriers was a big challenge, he said.
Last month, China's defence ministry confirmed the government was refitting the old, unfinished Soviet vessel bought from Ukraine's government, and sources told Reuters it was also building two of its own carriers.
The United States said today it would like China to explain why it needs an aircraft carrier amid broader US concerns about Beijing's lack of transparency over its military aims.
‘We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment,’ State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked whether the carrier would raise regional tensions.
