Recent reports circulating in the Chinese press indicate that Jiangnan Shipyard
(Group) Co Ltd - one of China's oldest state-owned shipbuilding companies and
regarded as the "cradle of China's national [shipbuilding] industry" - could be
slated by Beijing to carry out the Chinese military's long-standing mission to
build an indigenous aircraft carrier.
This information, checked against various reports that appeared in the Chinese
press, indicates that the recently enhanced Changxing Shipbuilding Base, off
the coast of Shanghai on Changxing Island, may be where China will build its
indigenous carrier.
The new base construction program, which began in June 2005, is
being undertaken by Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China
State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
One of the purposes for building the base was to utilize the deep water coast
of Changxing Island for construction of larger naval vessels. The largest
dockyard in the facility is reportedly 580 meters in length and 120 meters in
width, which makes it large enough to accommodate a Varyag-size carrier.
The first phase of the US$3.6 billion base project included the construction of
four large dry docks, nine outfitting piers and two cargo piers, which were
built along a 3.8-kilometer coastline. These new facilities will expand the
CSSC's current shipbuilding capacity from 800,000 deadweight tons (DWT) a year
to 4.5 million DWT by 2010.
In the second phase of the Changxing base development, two other CSSC
subsidiaries, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Corporation and Waigaoqiao
Shipbuilding Corporation, will build more shipyards along the island's eight
kilometers of coastline. By 2015, CSSC is expected to have an annual capacity
of 8 million DWT, equivalent to half of China's current shipbuilding production
capacity of 16 million DWT.
By then, holding the current pace of development constant, Changxing is
expected to become the world's largest shipyard. At the same time, Shanghai is
slated to become the world's largest shipbuilding base, tripling its capacity
to 12 million DWT by 2015.
Images of the facilities acquired by Kanwa Defense Review, a comprehensive
on-line magazine on East Asian security, referenced in a Chinese military
website, revealed the increased security around Dockyard No 3 at the shipyard,
which is used by the military: all the entrances and exit to that dockyard are
guarded by armed police, while the entrances for Dockyard No 1, which is for
building civilian vessels, are guarded by company security personnel.
According to a television interview on Shanghai-based Dragon TV with Nan
Daqing, the general manager of the Jiangnan Shipbuilding (Group) Co Ltd, which
was also cited by the Asahi Shimbun, Nan, who is deeply connected with the
Chinese navy, confirmed that all preparations for equipping the dockyard with
the capabilities to undertake the task from the Chinese navy to build an
aircraft carrier are complete.
Nan's statement was significant because it is the first public acknowledgement
by an involved party concerning China's actual development of an aircraft
carrier. Some sources have suggested that the first Chinese aircraft carrier
will not be a "knock-off" of an American or Russian model, but will be an
indigenous design.
According to other reports, China already possesses the catapult techniques
that are necessary to operate an aircraft carrier, and if it wants to build a
carrier, the deck may be modeled after the USS Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier.
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