<div class="ft-story-header"><h2>China hints at aircraft carrier project</h2><p><br></p><p>By Mure Dickie and Martin Dickson in Beijing</p><p>Published: November 16 2008 23:32 | Last updated: November 16 2008 23:32</p></div><div class="ft-story-body"><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
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paraNum = paraNum - 1;var tb = document.getElementById('floating-con');var nl = document.getElementById('floating-target');if(tb.getElementsByTagName("div").length> 0){if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length>= paraNum){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[paraNum]);}else {if (nl.getElementsByTagName("p").length == 3){nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[2]);}else {nl.insertBefore(tb,nl.getElementsByTagName("p")[0]);}}}}</script><div class="clearfix" id="floating-target"><p><br></p><p>The
world should not be surprised if China builds an aircraft carrier but
Beijing would use such a vessel only for offshore defence, a senior
official of the Chinese Ministry of National Defence has told the
Financial Times.</p><p>The <a class="bodystrong" target="_blank" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/aa68d51a-b414-11dd-8e35-0000779fd18c.html">comments</a>
from Major General Qian Lihua, director of the ministry’s Foreign
Affairs Office, come amid heated speculation within China and abroad
that the increasingly potent naval arm of the People’s Liberation Army
has decided to develop and deploy its first aircraft carrier.
Traditionally, a carrier would accompany and protect a battle group of
smaller ships.</p></div></div><p><br></p><p>The Pentagon said this year that China
was actively engaged in aircraft carrier research and would be able to
start building one by the end of this decade, while Jane’s Defence
Weekly reported last month that the PLA was training 50 students to
become naval pilots capable of operating fixed-wing aircraft from such
a ship.</p><p><br></p><p>Maj Gen Qian declined to comment directly on whether
China had decided to build a carrier, but in the defence ministry’s
most forthright statement yet on the issue he made clear that China had
every right to do so.
</p><p><br></p><p>“The navy of any great power . . . has the dream to have one or
more aircraft carriers,” he said in the interview, which aides said was
the first arranged by the defence ministry on its own premises. “The
question is not whether you have an aircraft carrier, but what you do
with your aircraft carrier.”</p><p>Though he did not mention the US by
name, Maj Gen Qian pointedly contrasted the function of a possible
Chinese vessel with the way the US Navy uses its 11 carriers. “Navies
of great powers with more than 10 aircraft carrier battle groups with
strategic military objectives have a different purpose from countries
with only one or two carriers used for offshore defence,” he said.
“Even if one day we have an aircraft carrier, unlike another country,
we will not use it to pursue global deployment or global reach.”</p><p><br></p><p>That
pledge is unlikely to reassure those in the region concerned about the
PLA navy’s emergence as a blue-water force. An effective Chinese
carrier could have serious implications for any conflict involving
Taiwan by strengthening the mainland’s ability to counter the island’s
air force and control its sea-lanes.</p><p>Beijing claims sovereignty
over Taiwan and threatens military action against the island if it
tries to further formalise its current <i>de facto</i> independence. Taiwanese separatism was the “biggest threat” China currently faced, Maj Gen Qian said.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d59c34fe-b412-11dd-8e35-0000779fd18c.html<br></p>
