The Chinese flag is seen in this illustration taken May 30, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

BEIJING, June 17 (Reuters) – China on Friday launched its third aircraft carrier, the domestically designed and built Fujian, named after the province across from self-governing Taiwan, sending a statement of intent to rivals as to modernize its army.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made overhauling the world’s largest armed forces a central part of his agenda, seeking to project his power far beyond China’s shores, although the government says it has no intention hostile.

Champagne, colorful ribbons, water cannons and smoke were unfurled to celebrate the launch and official naming of the new carrier during a ceremony at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, state media reported.

Dozens of navy personnel lined up in front of the ship and sang the national anthem during the ceremony, which was attended by senior officials including Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The carrier has a full-length flight deck with a catapult launch system, according to state media.

Fujian will join Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and Liaoning, which China bought used from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in the country.

China is still honing its ability to operate aircraft carriers and integrate them into battle groups, something the United States has been doing for decades.

Only the United States, with 11 aircraft carriers, has more ships. Ranked just below China, Britain has two in operation.

Fujian’s launch demonstrates the military’s growing capability at a time of growing tension with the United States over China’s claimed Taiwan and Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea.

The new aircraft carrier is named after the coastal province of Fujian, just across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan and home to the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command.

Taiwan is a thriving democracy but China regards the island as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters about the new carrier that it “attaches great importance” to China’s military developments.

Taiwan “integrates this into enemy situation research forward-looking, employs innovative asymmetrical thinking, and actively develops countermeasures to effectively implement the military strategy of defensive persistence and heavy deterrence,” it said. -he adds.

Taiwan controls two groups of islands that are geographically part of Fujian and lie just off its coast – Kinmen and Matsu – and which during the height of the Cold War were regularly bombarded by China.

Reporting by Ryan Woo and Martin Pollard; Additional reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; edited by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates

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