HONG KONG: China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier sailed into Hong Kong on Thursday, just days after the city marked 28 years under Chinese rule.

The Shandong, measuring more than 300 metres (1,000 feet) and commissioned in 2019, is China’s second carrier and is central to its regional ambitions under President Xi Jinping, who has overseen a massive naval buildup that has rattled Asian neighbours.

Beijing has said the Shandong and its escort vessels, which include the destroyers Zhanjiang and Yanan and the frigate Yuncheng, will visit the Chinese finance hub for five days and host “tours and cultural exchange activities”. The Shandong’s visit came days after it concluded combat drills in the western Pacific alongside China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

It anchored at the western edge of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour while the escorts berthed at the People’s Liberation Army naval base on Stonecutters Island on the northern side of the famous waterway.

City leader John Lee said at a welcoming ceremony that the visit would let the public “experience the magnificence and sophistication of the country’s modern warships”.

The PLA navy “not only protects national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, but is also an important force for regional peace and stability,” Lee said.

The Shandong and the Liaoning are both of a modified Soviet design, with J-15 fighter jets and helicopters seen on the Shandong’s distinctive “ski jump” deck on Thursday.

China’s third and more advanced carrier, the Fujian, is undergoing sea trials. Tickets to visit the vessels in Hong Kong were snapped up within minutes on social media app WeChat.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2025