• China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (16), is a Type 001-class ship that initially served as a training platform for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) before being upgraded for a full combat role in 2019.
  • Its roots trace back to the Soviet era: laid down in 1985 as the Riga, launched as Varyag in 1988, and left 68% incomplete when the Soviet Union collapsed.
  • Ukraine sold the stripped hull for $20 million in 1998 to a Macau company, which towed it to the Dalian naval shipyard; it arrived in 2002 and was rebuilt and commissioned as the Liaoning on 25 September 2012.
  • A unique quirk of its classification: the Soviet Navy dubbed it a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser" (TAKR) to bypass the Montreux Convention's ban on carriers transiting the Turkish Straits, but China considers it a true carrier—installing only air-defense guns and no anti-ship cruise missiles, so it relies entirely on its jets for attack.
  • Declared combat-ready in November 2016 and further upgraded through 2018, the Liaoning now serves as both a training hub and a frontline warship, marking China's arrival as a major naval power.