Will China Rule The Waters?

The 70,000-tonne ship, decked in red flags, emerged out of the mist on a cool and sunny morning at Dalian harbour.

- Ananth Krishnan and Sandeep Unnithan

Its arrival was three days late—it missed the PLA Navy’s April 23 anniversary—but for China’s leaders, it was well worth the wait. The unveiling of the ship, China’s yet-to-be-christened first homegrown aircraft carrier (known simply as Type 001A now) has made waves around Asia. It’s only the second carrier in the fleet of the PLA navy (PLAN), joining the Liaoning, a refitted version of a Soviet-era Ukrainian vessel, the Varyag.

China has long looked on enviously, not just at America’s 10 aircraft carrier strike groups that strutted around the Pacific—and on occasion sailed right into the Taiwan Strait to make a point—but even at India, whose aircraft carriers were a powerful symbol of its navy’s dominant presence in the Indian Ocean. Now, China’s strategic experts believe, the balance of power in Asia is shifting.