Rebuilt Soviet-era craft embarks on maiden voyage amid concerns about China's growing military muscle.
China's first aircraft carrier has begun its inaugural sea trial, a mission that underscores Beijing's naval ambitions and raises concern about its military influence in regional territorial disputes.
The carrier left Dalian port in northeast Liaoning province early on Wednesday, the stae-run Xinhua news agency reported. It was unclear how long the trial would last, with one expert claiming it could be as short as one hour.
China has been rebuilding the roughly 300-metre-long, Soviet-built craft for almost a decade.
"Its symbolic significance outweighs its practical significance," Ni Lexiong, an expert on Chinese maritime
policy at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, told the Reuters news agency.
"We're already a maritime power, and so we need an appropriate force, whether that's aircraft carriers or battleships, just like the United States or the British Empire did."
The show of force by China had already begun to make regional waves on Wednesday. Taiwan, in a preview for its defence exhibition, displayed its advanced Hsiung Feng III missile in front of a billboard depicting a missile-riddled aircraft carrier with the words "aircraft carrier killer" written above. Taiwan has previously deployed the missile on frigates but has never advertised it as an anti-carrier weapon.
