Beijing: President Xi Jinping attended the commissioning of China's first entirely home-built aircraft carrier, underscoring the country's rise as a regional naval power at a time of tensions with the US and others over trade, Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Credit:AP

The Shandong is the second Chinese aircraft carrier to enter service after the Liaoning, which was originally purchased as a hulk from Ukraine and entirely refurbished.

State media reported that about 5000 representatives from the naval forces and aircraft carrier construction groups attended the commissioning ceremony at a naval base near the city of Sanya.

The base in the southern island province of Hainan opens onto the South China Sea, where China is engaged in an increasingly heated dispute over territory and undersea oil and gas resources. China's claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway, through which passes an estimated $US5 trillion ($7.3 trillion) in trade annually, overlaps partially or in whole with five other governments.