Beijing cements warship ambitions
US embassy shocked by model of aircraft carrier that points to interest in Nimitz-class craft
China is so keen to copy the US Navy's Nimitz class aircraft carriers it has built a full-scale cement model of the ship for analysis purposes, military analysts said.
Identical in the pattern of the runway and with a full-scale replica of the warship's bridge, the four-storey structure near Qingpu town on Dingshan Lake has reportedly alarmed the US embassy in Beijing.
'The US embassy was shocked after realising there was a model of the ship and approached the relevant Chinese authorities who said the model had been constructed by a subsidiary of the defence ministry-backed China Aerospace Beijing Simulation Centre [BSC],' said Andrei Chang, of the Canada-based military magazine Kanwa Defence Review.
While the model - called the Oriental Oasis Aircraft Carrier and constructed by Changfeng Beifang Amusement Equipment Company Limited - is promoted as a defence education museum, analysts say there is little doubt the ship is used for analysis purposes.
Antony Wong, president of the International Military Association in Macau, said he had visited Nimitz-class carriers and the Shanghai model ship and that the simulated vessel was still a far cry from the real thing.
'The internal part of the model is very rough even though it has copied the measurements of the Nimitz,' Mr Wong said.
He said while military specialists would be able to spot the model warship's shortcomings, it indicated that China was keen to abandon its previous Soviet aircraft carrier models for US Navy craft.
'China has been keen on studying and building up a carrier battle group like the US. It has spared no effort to reach this goal,' he said.
The US-made Nimitz-class carrier, with more than 100,000 tonnes of displacement, is the largest nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world. It is also one of the world's most expensive pieces of military hardware, costing as much as US$4.5 billion.
The carrier can hold as many as 90 top line fighter jets such as F-18E and F-18F Super Hornet. It is famous for being able to launch a fighter in a mere 16 seconds.
In March, Wang Zhiyuan, a member of the science and technology committee of the general armaments department from the People's Liberation Army, announced that China intended to research and build an aircraft carrier and develop a carrier battle group.
China's first indication of interest came with its purchase of the Australian carrier Melbourne in 1985.
'Melbourne was a western-designed carrier which was made in Britain. It had common characteristics with US-designed warships,' said Mr Wong, adding that the few Soviet-designed carriers that China had purchased - including the unfinished Varyag carrier from Ukraine in 1992 - had been restructured to follow western designs.
Andrew Yang Nien-dzu, a senior analyst at the Chinese Council for Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei, said the PLA had made substantial progress in research and copying western weapons, including carriers.
'But the PLA has still so many comprehensive technical obstacles to resolve, not to mention the problems of budgetary constraints,' Mr Yang said.
China's interest in the USS Nimitz-class carriers was piqued when the carriers were involved in the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, which demonstrated the efficacy of a striking force of modern aircraft carriers.
