Chinese aircraft carrier will visit HK for 1st time, open to public!

This will be the Liaoning, China's first AC, which is a refurbished Ukrainian vessel.

This comes after a USN carrier battle group was denied a port visit to Hong Kong recently.

What's so special about this visit is, the Liaoning was only declared combat-ready just late last year. The public will have a chance to visit an aircraft carrier that has only just begun active missions instead of a retired one...

 

Chinese AC roadmap:

Liaoning 55000t full displacement (combat ready in late 2016)

Shandong 65000t full displacement (launched into waters in April 2017, will be commissioned by 2020)

3x unamed 80000t full displacement (preparing to build in tandem)

2-3x 100000t full displacement nuclear-powered (to be launched by 2025-27)



As we can see, the Liaoning will probably be used as a training vessel once Shandong is commissioned, so no risk of military espionage by opening Liaoning to public.