What Do The Chinese People Want? Why, Aircraft Carriers!

That's right. The Chinese people are clamouring for their navy to get aircraft carriers. Here's the thinking: China is becoming a great nation, great nations have aircraft carriers, so China should have aircraft carriers.

McClatchy Newspapers reports that the Chinese navy is very likely to deploy carriers in its fleet before long:

"There's a feeling among the Chinese public that their nation is a great power, and great powers have aircraft carriers," said Andrew S. Erickson, a civilian scholar at the China Maritime Studies Institute of the Naval War College in Rhode Island. "We've seen grass-roots campaigns that say, 'Everyone contribute some money so we can have an aircraft carrier.' "
Top People's Liberation Army officers voiced interest in building aircraft carriers to visiting senior U.S. military commanders this year, peppering them with questions.

"We said to them, essentially, 'Knock yourselves out. It ain't as easy as it looks,' " Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in July. "They acknowledged that and said, 'We reserve the right to develop aircraft carriers if we so choose.' They said to us there is no more prominent and visible signal of a nation's resolve and might than an aircraft carrier coming into a port."

China actually has acquired three aircraft carriers. They were built by the Soviet Union but were sold as surplus. The Chinese took two of them to pieces to study their technology and construction. The third is said to be at a secret naval base.

The US Navy has the biggest carrier fleet, twelve in all. A handful of other nations also field carriers including China's new home waters rival, India.