Owning an aircraft carrier has been the aspiration for generations of Chinese, especially within the People's Liberation Army.
Even in the days of China's late paramount leader Mao Zedong - when China's modern shipbuilding industry was basically nonexistent - Chinese leaders had decided that the nation needed a true deep-water navy with aircraft carriers at its nucleus. The need was felt particularly following a clash with Vietnam in 1974 over the sovereignty of the Xisha , or Paracel, islands in the South China Sea.
Aspirations were temporarily set aside when Deng Xiaoping launched his revolutionary economic reforms in 1978. Resources were diverted away from the military as economic development took priority. The PLA turned its focus to deterrence and coastal defence and spent its energy on less expensive goals, such as developing a submarine fleet. But the dream lived on. For many PLA leaders, building an aircraft carrier has been a holy grail.
The founder of the PLA's modern navy and its chief from 1982 to 1989, Admiral Liu Huaqing, lobbied top leaders hardest to spare more resources to upgrade the fleet.
Liu was the first to propose to the PLA's top Central Military Commission that it build the country's first carrier in the 1980s, helping earn his nickname as 'the father of the aircraft carrier.' He died in January, aged 95.
The PLA's top-secret carrier project was shelved for a time due to a lack of funds, although rumours of its perseverance continued to surface, especially after the navy put four modern destroyers into service in 2000. Finally, in June, PLA Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde, confirmed to a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong that the PLA was indeed building one.