Why won’t they use their own impoverished/lower class Brits?
This is a guess because the OP is a Chinese propagandist so we need more information, like salaries, benefits and actual number of Chinese nationals working on these ships.
Operating Aircraft carriers are expensive, that’s why most countries don’t build them because unless you are the USA with money to burn it doesn’t make sense financially and just like any immigrant job you can pay a lower wage.
Secondly, Britain historically has had a small native population so having to police a global empire the majority of its forces were made up of subjugated peoples. The British would typically assign ethnic groups by speciality. The Gurkhas the article refers to are actually considered some of the best soldiers in the world and have been used by the British in their armies for hundreds of years.
It’ll be interesting to see what incentives were offered these Chinese workers as Hong Kong has been a wealthy modern country for decades and serving months at a time on an aircraft carrier for low pay and shyt living conditions seems weird.
Personally I don’t see what the outrage is about. The only people this hurts are the people who are no longer employed. You guys are acting like these people were slaves or something lol.