Five things to know about China’s first homemade aircraft carrier

China added a second carrier to its naval fleet on April 26, 2017. What does this mean for China’s military and global ambitions?

Jia Guo

  1. China’s second aircraft carrier, the Type 001A, was designed and built completely in China.

  2. The Type 001A is a significant upgrade from the Liaoning, which was built more than 25 years ago and bought from Ukraine.

  • The new 50,000-ton carrier was towed from its dockyard on Wednesday after a ceremony in the northern port city of Dalian.

  • After at least a year of sea trials, it is expected to be formally operational by 2020.

  • It can accommodate about 50 aircraft, about 10 fewer than the U.S.’s Nimitz-class supercarriers.

    • Jia Guo is from the coastal city of Qingdao. She has an M.A. in multimedia journalism from NYU and has worked at Facebook and Bloomberg TV in New York City. Read more

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