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. 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.