China officially launched its third aircraft carrier today at a ceremony held at a shipyard in Shanghai, Xinhua reported.
It is the second aircraft carrier to be completely built in China and is much more technologically advanced than its predecessors.
It will be handed over to the Navy after several sea trials.
Xinhua did not say when the ship is expected to enter service, but it will not be immediately and should be in the coming years.
The ship was named "Fujian", after the name of a Chinese province, like the other two ships "Liaoning" and "Shandong".
Its launch comes at a time of high Sino-US tensions over Taiwan, an autonomous island of 24 million people that China claims as its historic territory.
Hostile to the US-Taiwan rapprochement in recent years, China's navy has repeatedly sent its aircraft carriers to the Taiwan Strait, which separates mainland China from island territories.
This third aircraft carrier will be much larger than its two predecessors and will have an ejection system, Xinhua reported.
According to Jane's, a military data agency, the US has by far the most aircraft carriers in service, 11, ahead of China with two, the UK with two, Russia, France, Italy, India and Thailand with one each.
China's first aircraft carrier "Liaoning" was commissioned in 2012, and was mainly used as a training platform. The knowledge gathered was then used for the construction of "Shandong", the first aircraft carrier built in China, which began to be used at the end of 2019.
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