What Does China's Committment To Build Aircraft Carriers Means For Asia?

Photo taken in May 2012 shows a Chinese aircraft carrier cruising for a test on the sea. China's first aircraft carrier was delivered and commissioned to the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on Sept. 25, 2012. The carrier, with the name "Liaoning" and hull number 16, was officially handed over to the Navy at a ceremony held in a naval base of northeast China's Dalian Port. (Xinhua/Li Tang)

What China's New Aircraft Carrier Means For Asia -- Harry White, Real Clear World

The apparent confirmation that China is building its second (and first indigenous) aircraft carrier has caused quiet alarm. But it's worth taking a ‘first principles' look at this development, examining what China will be able to do with its new aircraft carriers. There are important limits on what Beijing would be likely to achieve with carrier-based projection of air power. But the move will provide Beijing with the ability to be more assertive, and tells us a lot about China's sense of its role in the region.

To first get a sense of what this means for China's future, the way the US has used their carriers in recent decades is a good place to start. Since WWII, American carriers have supported operations in larger regional wars, including Korea and Vietnam, where there was significant enemy opposition to air operations although not a huge threat to the carriers themselves. They formed an important part of the ability of the US to project hard power into heavily contested spaces. More recently they've been used to project air power against countries that don't possess much in the way of either air defence and or an A2AD capability to pose a significant risk to the carriers.

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My Comment: The Chinese have always wanted to be the major player in Asia and eventually on the global scene .... this commitment to build carriers is the logical step towards such a goal.

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Tuesday, February 11, 2014