China is building its second aircraft carrier, which is
expected to take six years, and the country aims to have at least four
such ships, Chinese and Hong Kong media reports said on Sunday.
After two decades of double-digit increases in
the military budget, China's admirals plan to develop a full blue-water
navy capable of defending growing economic interests as well as disputed
territory in the South and East China Seas.
The country's first aircraft carrier, the
Liaoning - a Soviet-era ship bought from Ukraine in 1998 and re-fitted
in a Chinese shipyard - has long been a symbol of China's naval
build-up.
Successfully operating the 60,000-tonne Liaoning
is the first step in what state media and some military experts believe
will be the deployment of locally built carriers by 2020.
In comments carried on Chinese news websites,
Wang Min, the Communist Party boss of the northeastern province of
Liaoning, where the first carrier is based, said the second carrier was
being built in the port city of Dalian.
Its construction would take about six years, and
in future China would have a fleet of at least four carriers, Wang told
members of the province's legislature on Saturday, the reports added.
Dalian is the port where the existing carrier was re-fitted for use by the Chinese navy.
Some of the reports about the new carrier were
apparently latter removed from the Internet, as links to the stories did
not work.
