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China building aircraft carrier: report

TOKYO: China is building an aircraft carrier for a planned deployment in 2003, and three home port projects for it are near completion, the Sankei Shimbun said Monday, quoting Taiwanese official sources.

The newspaper said in a dispatch from Taipei that unidentified Taiwanese authorities told it of the Chinese project, which also includes training for crew members and pilots.

Dalian, Shanghai and Zhanjian ports are being expanded to operate as home ports for the carrier, and the ports projects are scheduled for completion in 1997, the newspaper said.

Moves by China towards building or procuring an aircraft carrier have been reported in fragments, but it is notable that the Taiwanese side confirmed the existance of the plan, the Sankei said.

"Building of an aircraft carrier symbolises a turnabout" of the Chinese navy's defense pattern from al defense to long-distant ocean actions, the source was quoted by the paper as saying.

"The main aim is to take the leadership in sea areas including Taiwan and the South China Sea, but they will probably become capable of going to the west Pacific," the source said.

The source did not disclose the structure of the carrier or the size of the budget for the project, Sankei said.

According to the report, training of crew members for the planned aircraft carrier began in 1987. Building of the carrier was initially set to start in 1993 and about 1.2 billion dollars were allocated initially, it said.

It estimated about five years were needed to build an aircraft carrier, with two years for test operation and another three years for training for actual deploment, it said.-APP