Chinese aircraft carrier sails into Hong Kong to boost patriotism

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s first domestically-built aircraft carrier arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday as part of a drive to drum up patriotism, days after the former British colony marked the 28th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.

The Shandong entered the city’s waters alongside another vessel from its battle group in the early morning hours. According to state media, two destroyers and a frigate had accompanied the aircraft carrier into Hong Kong. The warships will be open for public visits this weekend.

All 10,000 available tickets for visits have already been claimed by eager residents. Two thousand of them were for seeing the Shandong, while the others were for one of the destroyers and the frigate, local media reported.

The arrival of the carrier comes days after the Asian financial hub marked 28 years since it was turned over to China after more than a century of British colonial rule.

The ship is China’s second aircraft carrier and first to have been fully self-built. It is smaller than U.S. carriers, carrying 24 Shenyang J-10 fighters and weighing in at 70,000 tons fully loaded.

China has redoubled its patriotism drive in Hong Kong since crushing anti-government and pro-democracy street protests in 2019. A large number of opposition figures have been imprisoned after the passage of a sweeping new national security law.

Hong Kong enjoys a degree of semi-autonomy and civil liberties compared to other major Chinese cities. But its government has no jurisdiction over military and foreign affairs, with Chinese military officers and a garrison of land, sea and naval forces based in the city.

In April, the Chinese military sent the Shandong, named after the Chinese province of the same name, to conduct training exercises with some naval and air forces in the eastern sea area and airspace of Taiwan, a self-ruled island Beijing claims as its territory.

Beijing sends warplanes and naval vessels toward Taiwan regularly, and it has stepped up the scope and scale of these exercises in recent years.

A month later, the Shandong and China’s first carrier, the Liaoning, stirred considerable attention by conducting joint exercises in the Pacific beyond what is referred to as the first island group, showing a degree of assertiveness not seen before.

The Liaoning, built from an unfinished hulk purchased from Ukraine, visited Hong Kong in 2017. Another carrier, this one with a flat top rather than the “ski jump” type decks used by the first two, is undergoing sea trial and a fourth is under construction.