BEIJING: China on Wednesday launched sea trials for the Fujian, its third and most advanced aircraft carrier, state media reported.

The start of tests by the Chinese navy came nearly two years after the aircraft carrier was first unveiled in June 2022.

The Fujian, entirely designed and built domestically, is larger and more advanced than the Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998.

The development of the Fujian is part of a build-up central to President Xi Jinping’s bid to make China the preeminent military power in the region, with a “blue-water” navy capable of projecting power far from China’s coast.

The Fujian, which features a full-length, flat flight deck with an advanced catapult-launch system for jets, takes its name from the Chinese province opposite democratically governed Taiwan.