36 x J15 on what the CV-17? No, big no
36 in time of war crossing all health and safety standards yes even 48, can you actually then sustain air opps ? No
24 it is
Why not? Very approximately, the airwing capability of carriers ought to scale with approximately square of the cube root of the displacement. Based on this Liaoning ought to be able to operate at least 60% of the airwing of a Nimitz.
Carriers are longer term investments. If there is limit to how much funding for aircraft construction and training for the time being, it is sensible to build more hulls so that they would be available to support the aircraft when investment can be made in aircrafts.
The Nimitz class currently carry about 65 aircraft, but they are theoretically capable of operating over 100. The same discrepancy between how many they can operate under threat of war and how many they are staffed with in peace undoubtedly also apply to Liaoning and 017.