China unleashes first home-made aircraft carrier

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Via SCMP:

China’s first home-built aircraft carrier was officially commissioned by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday as Beijing flexed its military muscles.

The new warship will be called the Shandong and its formal entry into service is a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to build up its naval power.

This drive has been viewed warily by its neighbours and the United States in light of tensions in strategically sensitive areas such as the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.

The state broadcaster CCTV reported that the ceremony in Sanya, a port in the southern island province of Hainan, was attended by officials from the Southern Theatre Command which oversees the South China Sea.

The ship’s captain will be Lai Yijun, who previously commanded the frigate Lianyungang, while its political commissar will be Pang Jianhong, who served on the destroyer Xian. Both are senior colonels.

The tyrant attended:

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), boards the aircraft carrier Shandong and reviews the guards of honor at a naval port in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, Dec. 17, 2019. Xi attended the commissioning ceremony of China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, here Tuesday afternoon. The new aircraft carrier, named after Shandong Province in east China, was delivered to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and placed in active service Tuesday at the naval port.

And this:

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Park it off Bateman’s Bay and watch the Canberra roaches scatter.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.