You would seem to have the jump on us, then, on how the PLAN plans to employ this ship.
Aside from the rather pointed naming of the ship -- pointed at Taiwan -- it would appear that PLAN strategy seems to involve elimination of USN carrier battle groups through the use of asymmetrical weapons systems and doctrine, esp. involving IRBM's and large ASM's (including the Tomahawk system stolen/copied from the US), which would open the western Pacific and South China Sea to exploitation by Chinese CBG's built around Shi Lang, her sisters, and possibly smaller carriers and helicopter carriers.
There is nothing I've seen that would suggest any other employment than typical force projection on the Western model.
Exactly. It’s not rocket science — or rather it is, because I expect the ChiComs to use RATO on their birds to get them off the deck with a full bag of gas — but it’s obvious to anyone who follows military trends in this neck of the woods.
Could China build a supercarrier ala Nimitz? Probably, but I don’t think they will. They might instead build another Shi Lang type around a nuclear propulsion plant, but even that is doubtful. They can build three STOBAL carriers for the price of one Nimitz style birdfarm, and that will give them flexibility that even we cannot match — at least not for very long.
China is very heavily invested in Africa and many other parts of the developing world. They want and need to have a way to project force into those areas. Shi Lang and her follow on sisters will give them that capability.
Even Japan is also moving back into carrier aviation via the Hyuga and Ise class helicopters, which can be adapted for STOVL operations very quickly.
They even have a newer, much bigger design on the horizon with the 22DDH class. Why? Because the JMSDF planners can see what the ChiComs are doing and know that they are not going to be able to depend on the US to protect their interests forever, so they are going to have to do it themselves.