By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN – 21 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — China’s navy is planning major celebrations for its 60th anniversary next month, official media reported Friday, amid rising speculation over a possible announcement of plans to build an aircraft carrier.
A sail-past featuring some of the navy’s most modern craft and ships from other nations is being planned, Friday’s Global Times newspaper said, citing the commander of the east China fleet, Adm. Xu Hongmeng.
The report did not say exactly where the sail-past would happen or when, although the navy’s founding anniversary officially falls on April 23. The east China fleet is based in Shanghai, while many of the navy’s most advanced craft are based at the northern fleet headquarters in Qingdao, about 310 miles (500 kilometers) southeast of Beijing.
Global Times quoted Xu as saying that China was in need of a carrier.
“Both technologically and economically, China already has the capacity to build a carrier,” Xu said.
Beijing has been researching an aircraft carrier for years, having bought and towed to China a mothballed Russian carrier, the Varyag, in 1998. The PLA is also rumored to have purchased four carrier landing systems and up to 50 Russian Su-33 carrier-based aircraft.
Strategically, a carrier is seen mainly as a deterrent to U.S. intervention in a conflict over Taiwan, although Chinese experts say it would mainly serve to police the 1.16 million square miles (3 million square kilometers) of sea claimed by Beijing as its maritime territory.
Long neglected in favor of the army and air force, the 255,000-member People’s Liberation Army Navy has taken on an increasingly prominent role in recent years as the country’s sea-borne trade expands and Beijing moves to assert its offshore claims and stymie moves by Taiwan toward formal independence.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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BEIJING: China has the capacity to build aircraft carriers and should do so soon, the official China Daily on Friday quoted military officials as saying.
Chinese military officials have been lobbying the central government for years to build an aircraft carrier, which would allow naval forces to project air power offshore, but rarely make public statements about their intentions. “Building aircraft carriers is a symbol of an important nation. It is very necessary,” Admiral Hu Yanlin was quoted saying in an article headlined by the unattributed quote “Build aircraft carriers soon”.
Hong Kong media have said it could build a first carrier by 2010 and Hu said the rising power was ready. “China has the capability to build aircraft carriers and should do so,” he added. China said on Wednesday its official military budget for 2009 would rise 14.9 percent on last year, defending the boost as a modest and unthreatening move to improve equipment and to protect social stability.
China has been cautiously extending its military experience beyond its borders by contributing to peacekeeping forces, participating in joint exercises, and most recently sending naval ships to patrol pirate-menaced seas off the Somali coast. And some of the extra spending may go to naval modernisation. reutres
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By Peter Foster in Beijing
Last Updated: 4:19PM GMT 06 Mar 2009
BEIJING: China has the capacity to build aircraft carriers and should do so soon, the official China Daily on Friday quoted military officials as saying.
Chinese military officials have been lobbying the central government for years to build an aircraft carrier, which would allow naval forces to project air power offshore, but rarely make public statements about their intentions. “Building aircraft carriers is a symbol of an important nation. It is very necessary,” Admiral Hu Yanlin was quoted saying in an article headlined by the unattributed quote “Build aircraft carriers soon”.
Hong Kong media have said it could build a first carrier by 2010 and Hu said the rising power was ready. “China has the capability to build aircraft carriers and should do so,” he added. China said on Wednesday its official military budget for 2009 would rise 14.9 percent on last year, defending the boost as a modest and unthreatening move to improve equipment and to protect social stability.
China has been cautiously extending its military experience beyond its borders by contributing to peacekeeping forces, participating in joint exercises, and most recently sending naval ships to patrol pirate-menaced seas off the Somali coast. And some of the extra spending may go to naval modernisation. reutres
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March 7, 2009 at 4:20 am