China commissioned its first domestically engineered aircraft carrier, the Fujian, at a ceremony attended by President Xi Jinping on Hainan island, marking a significant advance in Beijing's ambition to build a "world-class" military capable of challenging US naval dominance by mid-century.
The carrier, China's third and first domestically built from scratch, represents one of the most visible examples of Xi's military modernisation campaign targeting a fully modernised force by 2035, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.
"Carriers are key to the Chinese leadership's vision of China as a great power with a blue-water navy," said Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, referring to forces capable of projecting power far from coastal waters.
The Pentagon's latest congressional report identifies China's "increasing
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