Asia Times:
Taditionally a land power, Beijing has felt compelled by events in the last two centuries to see the Pacific Ocean as its vulnerable flank. Now China has made no secret of its quest to develop an aircraft carrier rapidly with aviation capabilities similar to those of the United States.
Buying a mothballed Soviet-built hull and retrofitting it into a training aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and then building a lookalike vessel – Type 001A – from scratch are evidence that Beijing is making strides and meticulously building up elements of its naval power.
However, Sebastien Roblin, a US-based military commentator and columnist, cautions that the Chinese fleet of carriers and their air wings utilize a host of supporting technologies that must be further modernized and then integrated into a cohesive whole.
