The Chinese don’t even have a jet that can take off or land on the Carrier yet. They’ve been training pilots on a concrete strip on land, but calling it a “show of force” when they haven’t even launched a single plane, let alone landed one, from this platform is a bit much.

The Chinese themselves have called this ship experimental and for research purposes only. They are surely planning to use it to learn carrier operations and to design their own carrier.

The other thing about this vessel is that when the Russians had it, it was for defending their fleet assets only. In fact the one they still have (same class) is still operated that way, air cover only.

Also note, the J-15 Fighter that is under development for this Carrier is not expected to be put into production until 2016. (en.wikipedia.org)

This is an important step for China into building a deep water navy, but the vessel itself is not of much tactical use as yet. I suppose they could put 40 or 50 Helicopters on it for ASW operations, and it has a pretty good air defense setup, but at 60,000 tons it is a bit overkill for doing the same work of a handful of good 8000 ton guided missile destroyers are for, and lacking the ship killing component (the Russian version has SSMs and other weapons, but China wanted more hangar space).