China launched its second aircraft carrier on Wednesday — the first it has made itself from scratch, marking the latest milestone in Beijing’s superpower ambitions.
The Type 001A vessel, which has yet to be named, was bedecked in red flags and coloured streamers as tugboats towed it out of a shipyard in the northern city of Dalian, in a ceremony kept secret until the last moment.
The 311m carrier, with an upward-sloping “ski jump” deck, is slightly larger than the Liaoning, China’s first carrier, which was made from a former Soviet hull bought from Ukraine in 1998.
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