HONG KONG ¨C China has nearly finished a giant coast guard ship and will probably deploy it armed with machine guns and shells in the disputed South China Sea, the Global Times reported, dubbing the vessel ¡°The Beast.¡±
China Coast Guard vessel 3901, with a 12,000 ton displacement, will carry 76 mm rapid-fire guns, two auxiliary guns and two anti-aircraft machine guns, the paper reported, citing unidentified people and photos posted on the Internet.
It will be the second of China¡¯s mega-cutters that are the largest in the world, according to the Global Times. A similar boat entered service last year in the East China Sea, where China is separately involved in a territorial dispute with Japan over the Senkaku Islands, which are known in China as the Diaoyu.
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