China's First Aircraft Carrier Nearly Ready For Launch

A top Chinese military official has confirmed that Beijing is building its first aircraft carrier, described as a "symbol of a great nation" which could reportedly set sail within weeks.

As the Guardian is reporting, the vessel is actually a formerly defunct Soviet-era carrier formerly named the Varyag that was purchased in 1998 from Ukraine by a Hong Kong company. Though it was originally proposed as a floating casino to be docked off the shores of Macau, the ship has reportedly been upgraded at China's Dalian naval shipyard with combat sensors and defensive weapons and painted in the colors of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The 990-foot carrier, which the BBC calls "an unmistakeable sign of China's expanding military and its desire to project Chinese power further beyond its borders than ever before," was originally constructed in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was never completed and sat rusting in dockyards in Ukraine. Qi Jianguo, assistant to the chief of the PLA's general staff, is quoted by the AFP as saying the ship would not enter other nations' territories, in accordance with Beijing's defensive military strategy. "All of the great nations in the world own aircraft carriers -- they are symbols of a great nation," he said. Later, he added, "It would have been better for us if we acted sooner in understanding the oceans and mapping out our blue-water capabilities earlier."

Other officials echoed those sentiments. "It's also a symbol of deterrence," General Xu Guangyu, who used to serve in the PLA's headquarters and is now retired, told the BBC. "It's like saying, 'Don't mess with me. Don't think you can bully me.' So it's normal for us to want a carrier. I actually think it's strange if China doesn't have one."

As GlobalPost notes, China is involved in a number of marine territorial disputes with its neighbors, including around the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and around the islands claimed by China as the Diaoyu Islands and by Japan as the Senkaku Islands, in the East China Sea.

Comments

[Reston]

08:29 PM on 06/12/2011

Americans' view of the world are snapshots, when China has been relatively weak. And do not seem to realize that China had been exceptional many times in history, from Chang Ho's amada in the 15th century to the invensions that modern society is based on. This aircraft carrier is just a test of the water to gain experience of what they need to do for a blue water doctrine, when all the related technologies have become mature for them.

[king soloman]

01:25 PM on 06/10/2011

i have a boat like that in my backyard. Though it does not come equipped with aircraft.

[powercosmic]

10:59 AM on 06/10/2011

Well, with resources dwindling and a competitor like America, that is armed to the teeth, I would want to bring something more than a knife to the gunfight too!

[hagagaga]

04:19 PM on 06/13/2011

Well, bringing a sword to a gunfight...just ask Indiana Jones about that...

[Palaver]

07:06 AM on 06/10/2011

The aircraft carrier is to provide air superiority to an anti-ship ballistic missile fleet. It doesn't have much strike capability of its own--being the size of a heavy cruiser.

[rbenjamin]

08:47 AM on 06/10/2011

At roughly 60,000 tons displacement she is a really heavy cruiser. Her main function is prestige enhancement.

[Mike Moscoe]

12:40 PM on 06/10/2011

Pardon me, but heavy cruisers topped out at 17,000 tons (see the USS Newport News. At 60,000 tons and 990 feet this puppy is up there with the USS Midway (commissioned 1945-1993) and the USS Forestall. What she lacks is catapults, so they're using the ski jump for launching (rough on the a/c) and wires for arrested landings. It would be interesting to see her in a fight with the Charles De Gaul, but I doubt she could hold her own against any of the US carriers. But then that's not the issue here. This puppy will tower over the new carrier from Thailand.

[Sean Connolly]

04:02 AM on 06/10/2011

good for China.

[First Blast]

02:01 AM on 06/10/2011

Well, if it is like everything else the Chinese make, it will fall apart after a few voyages.

[hagagaga]

04:20 PM on 06/13/2011

There's a reason why the traditional design of boat in China is called "junk."

[InYourWorld]

07:09 PM on 06/09/2011

Where's the outrage from all the Bush haters?

for the record I hate all our wars regardless of the party behind them...

[BevoMD]

02:40 PM on 06/09/2011

Easy to build and easy to sink.The Chinese cannot afford to try and create a carrier battle group that even comes close to ours or the British. Unfortunately weapons are being designed that will likely render the aircraft carrier as obsolete as the battleship. This is just another sign that for all of their ability to import and use technology, they do not encourage universities to teach innovative thinking. That will not last forever, and we need to be at the forefront of innovative technology.

[tksensei]

01:25 AM on 06/10/2011

What makes you think universities do not teach innovative thinking?

[rbenjamin]

09:07 AM on 06/10/2011

I don't know if the Chinese can afford to create a carrier battle group, but if they choose to, it's going to take a long time to pull it off.

The British and United States each have nearly a century of experience operating fixed wing aircraft from ships. Carrier aircraft operate under extremely demanding conditions: and that's just the launch and recovery part. Simply modifying a land based airplane for carrier use is rarely successful - although going in the other direction has produced some outstanding results.

A genuine Chinese Blue water navy is still a work in progress.

[homebuyersdepot]

02:39 PM on 06/09/2011

There is a reason why Russia got rid of the aircraft carrier.. Also it's not high tech in design..The US is changing it's carrier fleet slowly into stealth....

[Hunter3203]

06:02 PM on 06/09/2011

Yeah, the Soviet Union imploded and they had no money. It's not as capable as our carriers but then nobody elses are either. Still, 50 planes and helicopters is a hell of a potential strike force.

Our current Nimitz class carriers will be in service until at least 2058. I'm not sure how stealthy an 1100 ft long 4.5 acre slab of steel can really be. Remember, they can track the carriers by their wake from satellites.

[rae112754]

07:01 AM on 06/10/2011

No, the new Ford class carriers will be more stealthy than the old Nimitz class carriers. But they will still stick out like a soar thumb on radar just like the old ones did just not as bad. And they will still be an easy target to find, to track and to sink by an enemy aircraft with a single missle or torpedo. And wherever a carrier goes so does its battle group which isnt small stealthy by no means and most still run on diesel and need to be re supplied.

[Jack Glastra]

02:35 PM on 06/09/2011

Let them have their military power sufficient to their sphere of influence... We do have 11 aircraft carriers after all, not to mention a bunch of smaller aircraft-capable ships.

[observer151]

12:42 PM on 06/09/2011

For the Varyag's $20 million purchase price + the cost of a tow to the mid-Atlantic to scuttle it, the US could have forced the Chinese into spending $1B+ on building a carrier from scratch and delayed them by 10 more years.

That's what asymmetric warfare is about.

[x4r1]

02:53 PM on 06/09/2011

Oh are we at war with China now? That's pretty awesome news. Let the MIC good times roll!

[myaa]

11:05 AM on 06/09/2011

How about we start outsourcing our foreign military interventions to China for a change (instead of our jobs and companies)?

[L3mon]

05:21 PM on 06/09/2011

ya.. if US doesn't deal arms to foreign nations, there isn't much left, so, you are definitely right

[Lochness71]

11:03 AM on 06/09/2011

Sounds like a real state of the art aircraft carrier... back in 1990.

[hagagaga]

04:24 PM on 06/13/2011

1980

[theborg]

10:38 AM on 06/09/2011

Will it serve 'take out'?

[tksensei]

04:49 AM on 06/10/2011

That's what carriers are for.

[Deparis]

10:27 AM on 06/09/2011

While the Chinese are busy building a great nation, we are busy squabbling about Anthony "Me-and-the-pussys" Weiner sending pics of his nude wee wee to an adult woman via twitter and arguing whether his wife should kick him to the curb or not or whether he should resign from his day job or not.

Then you have knuckleheads here missing the substance of the real debate that an article like this should raise by focusing on whether China's old new aircraft carrier can challenge ours or not. The very fact that they went from an agrarian and peasant communist country to an economic and industrial behemoth in just about 6 to 7 decades is completely missed.

[theborg]

10:39 AM on 06/09/2011

Yep. It's amazing what slave labor will do for ya'!

[Ppossom]

11:03 AM on 06/09/2011

Yah, Chinese slaves build most of the goods you buy at Walmart, illegal alien slaves grow most of the food you buy at Kroger.

Chinese slaves are organizing unions, but the illegal alien slaves will be deported if they try any of that funny stuff.

[powercosmic]

10:47 AM on 06/09/2011

We are hobbled by the Oil Lobby and the the Big Oil Party, aka GOP.

Since before WWII the Big Oil lobby has been steadily consolidating its power in the US, it was known even in the 1930's that the Middle East had the biggest oil reserves so lots of seemingly stupid foreign policy is centered around creating dictatorships in the middle, our support of Isr.ael is another weird thing too.

Once you begin to follow the money, you can explain so many weird things about the US, our "Romance with the Automobile" meme is one of those, our lack of Mass Transit and Passenger Rail.

Our entire economy revolves around the black hole of Big Oil.

China has a big advantage over us: Don't follow our example!

[tksensei]

04:58 AM on 06/10/2011

Yes, yes, I think I see 'Big Oil' lurking outside your window right now! I hope they don't see your post and send the Men in Black to take you away to their secret island and feed you to the laser sharks!

[Realdemocracyplease]

10:49 AM on 06/10/2011

Have you seen China's ridiculous car obsession? When I left Beijing they had 3 million cars and 1 million parking spaces. They don't have that great advantage you mentioned. They are also about to have their very own housing bubble burst on them.