China's first aircraft carrier held a flag-raising ceremony yesterday, amid rising tensions over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

China's first aircraft carrier held a flag-raising ceremony yesterday, amid rising tensions over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

The ceremony on the 300-meter ship, the former Soviet carrier Varyag now to be the Liaoning after the northeast province where it was refitted, took place in the province's port of Dalian.

During the ceremony, the aircraft carrier raised the Chinese national flag on its mast, the People's Liberation Army flag on its bow and the PLA Navy's colors on its stern.

The aircraft carrier has undergone numerous sea trials since August 2011. Construction of the Varyag ended with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. China bought the carrier's immense armored hull - with no engine, electrics or propeller - from Ukraine in 1998 and began to refit the vessel in Dalian in 2002.