A Chinese state document has referred to the government having “put forward” a plan in 2009 to build aircraft carriers, adding to widespread expectations that such a program is in hand or imminent.
The “Sunday Morning Post,” a Hong Kong newspaper that obtained the document, presents it as the first official confirmation of a carrier program, but the wording seems less than categorical.
“In 2009, China put forward an idea and plan for building aircraft carriers. These indicate China has entered the historical era of building a maritime superpower,” the government says in its 2010 Ocean Development Report, according to the newspaper’s translation.
“Building China as a maritime power is the mission of China in the whole 21st century, and 2010 to 2020 is the critical period for accomplishing this strategic mission, with the goal to place China among mid-tier maritime powers.”
Evidence has been mounting for years that China plans to build aircraft carriers. Early reports seemed premature and led to skepticism about later statements. But the evidence of Chinese ambitions has been piling up, especially over the past two years, with officials making remarks that have defended the country’s interest in operating such ships.
The Ocean Development Report’s reference to making China a mid-tier maritime player suggests that it aims to deploy a force comparable with that of Britain, Japan or France. That raises the question of how far it is behind those countries, if at all, and how far it would expect to deploy. Would it want to operate far from its own territory, as the Royal Navy is used to doing, or only close to its ports, like the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force?
Some analysts believe that China is initially interested only in defending what it regards as territorial waters — though in Beijing’s definition those territorial waters include much of the South China Sea.
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