Trade tensions with the United States blow hole in budget for China’s newest aircraft carrier
- Cuts and rising fighter jet development costs have slowed progress on the Type 002, military insiders say
Work on China’s newest aircraft carrier has slowed as tensions with the United States and military reform have taken their toll on the programme’s budget, military sources said.
The assessment came just a day after Beijing confirmed it was building its second home-grown aircraft carrier – its third in total.
State-run Xinhua news agency said on its microblog on Sunday that work was under way on China’s “new generation carrier”, the Type 002. Its predecessor, the Type 001A, the first domestically built vessel of its kind, was launched in April 2017. Military experts expect it will be handed over to the Chinese navy by October 1 in time for the 70th anniversary of the people’s republic.
China’s first aircraft carrier, the Kuznetsov-class Liaoning, was commissioned in 2012 after it was bought from Ukraine and refitted in China.
The Xinhua report was the first official Chinese media confirmation of the Type 002’s construction, a disclosure that means the vessel’s keel is ready to be laid, according to a source close to the Chinese military.