China has launched its first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier and has called for the US to cease military exercises with South Korea as Trump’s USS Vinson continues to steam towards the Korean Peninsula. 

The 50,000-ton carrier, based on the Soviet Kuznetsov class design, was towed from its dockyard just after 9am following a ceremony in the northern port city of Dalian.

It comes as the US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson makes its way to the troubled Korean Peninsula amid fears Kim Jong-un is plotting to carry out North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.

But China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday urged an end to US-South Korean military manoeuvres as well as a stop to North Korea’s nuclear programme to calm tensions on the peninsula.

Talking in Berlin, he said: ‘We have to, on the one hand, stop the nuclear activities of North Korea and, on the other hand, the large-scale manoeuvres in Korean waters should cease.’

In Pyongyang’s latest provocation, Kim oversaw the country’s largest-ever firing drill to mark the founding anniversary of its military.

Meanwhile, the US has enraged China by delivering a missile defence system to a deployment site in South Korea.

Washington is urging China – Pyongyang’s sole major ally – to do more to rein North Korea in, but the Asian giant has reacted with fury to the planned installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

This morning, the new unnamed Chinese aircraft carrier was launched amid great fanfare in a ceremony attended by Vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission and Communist Party Central Committee member Fan Changlong.

Daily Mail

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