[Pat Kennedy]

A US satellite has taken photographs of the new Chinese aircraft carrier on sea trials in the Yellow Sea. The ship, China's first aircraft carrier, was launched in August
The former Soviet Union started building the carrier, which it called the Varyag, but never finished it. When the USSR collapsed, the ship ended up in Ukraine.
China bought the ship from Ukraine in 1998 and spent years refurbishing it. It had no engines, weapons or navigation systems when China acquired it. It has said the ship is intended for research and training, which has led to speculation that it plans to build copies.

[the brit]

They will be on par with the British Carriers as well Pat, like us they won't have aircraft on them according to what i read.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I doubt if the new carriers will be "copies" of the Varyag; Chinese naval architecture is pretty good these days and I think it is more likely that the new ships (rest assured, there will be some - China is dead serious about creating carrier groups to project power globally) will incorporate the lessons learned from experiments with the ex-Varyag.

[Arkroyal]

China in the 1990's purchesed the ex Australiaian carrier melborne. They scraped it. Before they scraped it they did resurch on it as they have not had an aircraft carrier before. They might build more..

[Pat Kennedy]

The report that I read stated that US intel experts believe it will be 'many years' before the Chinese can train and deploy a competent air wing.
This may be wishful thinking, given that China has also developed their first stealth fighter plane, the Chengdu J-20, which is apparently on a par with the US F22.

[fred henderson]

A minor problem with the Chinese Carrier is that it has no arrester wires on the deck. The Chinese have been trying to find out how to construct them. No doubt they will steal some plans from somewhere.