The start of tests by the Chinese navy came nearly two years after the aircraft carrier was first unveiled in June 2022.

The Fujian, entirely designed and built domestically, is larger and more advanced than the Shandong, commissioned in late 2019, and the Liaoning, which China bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998.

CCTV reported the Fujian had set out to sea from a shipyard in Shanghai just after 8am local time.

The development of the Fujian is part of a build-up central to President Xi Jinping’s bid to make China the preeminent military power in the region, with a “blue-water” navy capable of projecting power far from China’s coast.

The Fujian, which features a full-length, flat flight deck with a catapult-launch system for jets, takes its name from the Chinese province opposite democratically governed Taiwan.

It had been stationed at Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard, where it was undergoing tests.

The sea trials are a final step before the aircraft carrier is put into service by China’s navy.

Only the US, with 11 aircraft carriers and nine aircraft-carrying amphibious assault ships, has more of the vessels.