Story highlights Announcement of new electronic surveillance ship a rare move for China's military

China's Navy added 18 ships last year, report says

(CNN) China's Navy has added a new model of electronic reconnaissance ship to its fleet, as Beijing seeks to assert its military might in the South China Sea.

The CNS Kaiyangxing or Mizar went into service earlier this week in the eastern port city of Qingdao, the China Daily reported.

The paper said divulging details of its intelligence fleet was "a rare move" for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN.)

Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said that revealing the ship's launch served two geopolitical purposes.

The Kaiyangxing has a maximum speed of 20 knots, or 37 kilometers per hour.

"Beijing can claim that it has been transparent with its military buildup, and this helps feed the strategic narrative about having a defensive defense policy that it upholds," he said.

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