China's first aircraft carrier has docked at its new permanent base in
the northern port of Qingdao, where it will be responsible for
operations in waters surrounding Japan and the Korean Peninsula, media
reports said Wednesday.
Speculation has swirled over where the ship, christened the Liaoning,
would call home. It officially entered service on Sept. 25 amid a series
of maritime disputes between China and its neighbors, particularly
Japan, with which it is engaged in a tense standoff over disputed
islands in the East China Sea.
Qingdao is home to China's Northern Fleet, which is responsible for
operations in the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan, parts of the East China
Sea and the Bohai Gulf, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Beijing.
Qingdao offers the country's longest breakwater to guard against
catastrophic storms, and remains ice-free year-round.
The official Xinhua News Agency and Global Times newspaper reported that
the carrier left its temporary base in the northeastern port of Dalian
on Tuesday for the first sea trials of the year following a three-month
refitting. Xinhua said weapons systems were tested during the voyage to
Qingdao, but gave no details.
The Liaoning is a refurbished Soviet-era carrier purchased from Ukraine
that China has described as an experimental model. China is believed to
have plans to use its experience with the Liaoning to build four or more
carriers of its own, one or more of which will be based at the southern
island province of Sanya, which faces the South China Sea. China's
claim to ownership of the entire South China Sea and its island groups
is contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.
While the Liaoning doesn't yet have an aircraft complement or battle
group, the carrier program has been the most eye-catching element of
China's comprehensive naval buildup, which also includes ballistic
missile submarines, modern destroyers and a new generation of stealth
missile frigates, the first of which was launched Monday at Shanghai's
naval shipyard.
The navy conducted landings on the Liaoning in November using J-15 carrier fighters based on Russia's Su-33.
No comments:
Post a Comment