China’s first aircraft carrier not a threat
By Kang Byung-tae
senior editorial writer of the Hankook Ilbo, sister paper of the Korea Times.
China seems to be ready to test its first aircraft carrier. At the outset, it was a remodeled Varyag, an Admiral Kuznetsov-class multirole aircraft carrier, built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Although it is 300 meters long with a full load capacity of 66,400 tons, it was never completed, failing to come into service as the Soviet Union collapsed. A Hong Kong tour agency purchased the carrier for $20 million in 1998 to convert it into a floating casino. However, it has been restoring the carrier at a shipyard in Dalian since 2002. China’s Defense Ministry formally confirmed last week that the country has been constructing an aircraft carrier, breaking the long silence it had kept amid widespread speculation.
China has reportedly named the aircraft carrier the Shi Yang after the Chinese admiral of the Qing Dynasty who first conquered Taiwan. It is tuned to China’s naval modernization strategy, underlining that it will expand its area of activity to the waters linking Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The aircraft carrier’s name, Varyag, itself contains a mixed history of glory and shame. As a Soviet cruiser, the carrier’s namesake became a legend of the Russian navy when it showed its undaunted fighting spirit in a naval battle against Japan at the Port of Incheon, west of Seoul, in 1904.
The Varyag cruiser was scuttled on the verge of seizure, while solely fighting against six Japanese cruisers. Japan salvaged the sunken ship and renamed it the Soya until its return to Russia in 1916. This time, the Varyag was captured by the British navy during World War I. It was sold to Germany and then sank in 1925.
It was Ukraine which restored the Varyag’s legendary name. The country obtained the carrier following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ukraine boasts the mainstream of the Rus, the root of the Russian people. Varyag refers to the Varangians, the originators of the Rus tribe.
The Varyag carrier experienced twists and turns even after ownership was transferred to China. The carrier, which was docked in the Black Sea, remained there for one and a half years as the Turkish government blocked it from passing through the Bosporus Strait, citing its large size. After that, the carrier had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, as it was also barred from passing through the Suez Canal. By that time, it had seen much of the Western world.
The appearance of China’s first aircraft carrier has stoked fears that it poses a military threat. China has insisted that “Varyag is for training,” claiming that even smaller Thailand has an aircraft carrier. At any rate, the threat of the Chinese navy should not be overestimated. China, with its single traditional aircraft carrier, can hardly compete against the U.S., which boasts 10 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the 100,000-ton class. However, China also possesses both nuclear-powered submarines and other general warships.