China building second aircraft carrier completely on its own Defence Ministry

Beijing’s announcement appears to be in line with the Pentagon’s assessment that China possesses the capacity to construct and deploy a number of aircraft carriers in the coming 15 years. In recent years, it has been embroiled in territorial disputes with regional nations in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

“To safeguard our maritime sovereignty, interests and rights is the sacred mission of China’s armed forces”.

The defence ministry confirmed that the aircraft carrier would be added to its rapidly-expanding array of military hardware. The country’s Defense Ministry released an official statement on its website saying, “Independent design and construction work [on the carrier] are under way”.

But China does not yet have a fleet of aircraft or pilots ready for carrier operations. “China has a long coastline and a vast maritime area under our jurisdiction”.

The rebuilding of the Varyag, and the extensive blue-ocean training on the Liaoning, have mainly solved the problems of how to build an aircraft carrier and how to use the concept of carrier operational groups.

According to Yang, however, fighter jets on the new carrier will use a ski-jump to take off. The carrier will serve as a base for J-15 fighters (already in use on the Liaoning), Yang said, as well as “other ship-based aircraft” (likely to eventually include the J-31, a fifth-generation fighter presently under development).

Last week, the military said the Liaoning had made a “key breakthrough” in shifting from the testing phase to being able to operate ship-borne aircraft, as the country’s navy chief paid a visit.

The U.S. has deployed its own aircraft carriers to the area – including a high-profile October patrol within 12 nautical miles of the islands – drawing harsh rebukes from Beijing. Beijing claims almost all of the resource-rich waters in the South China Sea, through which over US$5 trillion (S$7 trillion) of maritime trade passes each year.

Relations between Japan and China have often been strained over competing claims of the Senkaku islands, or Diaoyu in Chinese. That service has still to take on its full aviation complement.

The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim parts of the South China Sea.