China's People's Daily newspaper said Shandong's first domestic aircraft carrier would focus on patrolling in the South China Sea instead of training like Liaoning.

"The strategic focus of the Shandong aircraft carrier will be the areas around the South China Sea," People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, yesterday posted on its official social media account, after China. National payroll aircraft carrier first.

The People's Daily said that the Shandong aircraft carrier operational group will be deployed to the sea in the future, where "ships and military aircraft from several countries have recently conducted freedom of navigation operations". . The post did not identify any countries, but said the main task of the Shandong aircraft carrier would be to operate instead of focusing on training such as Liaoning.

The US Navy recently strengthened its operations of freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea to challenge China's unjustified sovereignty claim and international law. However, Beijing often accuses US freedom of navigation patrols operations as "increasing tensions" and "infringing upon sovereignty".

Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the order of staffing the Type-001A Shandong aircraft carrier at Sanya base on Hainan Island on December 17. This is the first aircraft carrier designed and built by China, but the Chinese navy is likely to be unable to build aircraft carriers and logistics and escort ships to protect Shandong. Works in the near future.

Chinese media praised the payroll of the Shandong vessel as a "milestone" in its attempt to build its naval power, helping Beijing close the gap with Washington. However, military experts point out that Shandong still has many major weaknesses in its design and tactical characteristics, making it difficult to operate for a long time at sea.

The use of a diesel engine makes the ship consume a lot of fuel, depending heavily on the logistics ship, while the design of the jump bridge significantly limits the combat capabilities of the J-15 fighter, which is already very heavy and Unstable operation.

The Shandong ship was built by China in 2015 based on the design of Liaoning, the carrier was bought by Ukraine from Ukraine in 1998 and converted and put into operation in 2012. China initially intended to staff the Shandong ship. in early 2019, but a series of incidents during the test made the ship delivery schedule delayed by 8 months.