Story highlights Vessel isn't expected to go into service until 2020

China existing aircraft carrier was bought from Ukraine and refitted

Beijing (CNN) The first aircraft carrier designed and built in China was launched Wednesday amid streamers and champagne.

The as-yet unnamed vessel is China's second aircraft carrier. Early on Wednesday morning it was towed from Dalian Shipyard, in Liaoning Province, to a nearby wharf, China's Ministry of National Defense said.

China first announced the construction of its new carrier in late December 2015. State media said it would be "independently designed in China."

The newly-built aircraft carrier is transferred from dry dock into the water on April 26.

The new vessel still lags behind its US counterparts technologically, but senior fellow at Sydney's Lowy Institute Sam Roggeveen told CNN it is likely just a "stepping stone" to China's next generation of aircraft carriers.

"It's probably been designed to just get China in the aircraft carrier game, and while this design was just an incremental advance (on the country's first carrier), with the next carrier, which could already be under construction, it will be much closer to a US carrier," he said.