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China plans

to build own

aircraft carrier

HONG KONG: China is planning to build its own aircraft carriers after failing to procure such vessels from the former Soviet republics, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Monday.

The Sing Tao Daily quoted Chinese military sources as saying that plans to build carriers inside China had been issued by military authorities after unsuccessful negotiations to acquire ships from Russia and Ukraine.

It was "nothing unusual" for a country the size of China, with its long coastline, to have its own carriers, the sources said, adding that it would be "a matter of regret" if it did not have one by the turn of the century.

Initially, the sources said, China's first carriers would be light-weight types.

The Sing Tao Daily report coincided with tension between China and Taiwan, with Beijing staging two missile drills in the East China Sea in recent months.

It also appeared as China reasserts its claim to the far-flung Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, which are also claimed in whole or in part by the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

China bought an aircraft carrier from Australia, the Melbourne, in the 1980s for scrap metal, but Western military sources at the time said the Chinese side had asked for detailed plans of its key components, including its steam-powered aircraft launching system.-AFP