Chinese military officials confirmed in the wake of the South China Sea dispute that the country is building its second aircraft carrier.
According to media reports, the new carrier will be completely different from the first aircraft carrier Liaoning which entered service in 2012.
It has also been said that the new carrier would be built entirely domestically, using domestic technology and flying the Chinese J-15 fighter jets. The ship will be powered by a conventional power plant.
The nation’s first carrier, the Liaoning was purchased as a hull from Ukraine for approximately $20 million and was refitted at the CSIC Dalian Shipyard.
The previous year, 2015, was marked by heightened tensions between China on one side, and the USA and other countries on the South China Sea, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan on the other side. After the U.S. Navy’s guided missile destroyer USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles off Zhubi Reef of the Nansha Islands on October 27, Chinese military officials even threatened with war if such patrols were to happen again.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has lately been building a net of artificial islands in contested parts of the sea. The United States claim that these islands would allow the Chinese to control one of the world’s most important energy trade routes, as EIA, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, put it.