China's Newest Aircraft Carrier Set For Sea-Trials

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was not taken seriously as a maritime threat.The Royal Australian Navy offloaded the HMAS Melbourne (R21), an old World War II, Majestic-class light aircraft carrier to the Chinese for breaking in 1985. However, the scrapping was delayed so the PLAN could examine Melbourne as part of a top secret project to develop a domestic Chinese aircraft carrier.

In 1987, Beijing landed its first fighter jet on the aircraft carrier, as the PLAN turned the vessel into a “source of valuable technical intelligence for an ambitious Chinese military,” said  news.com.au.