New Delhi: China has started building its second aircraft carrier as part of a push to cement its position as the world's second biggest navy, according to reports in both China and Hong Kong.
Wang Min, the party chief of Liaoning province in north-east China where the vessel is reportedly being built, said the carrier's construction would take six years and added that the authorities eventually planned to build four such carriers.
If true, this would be China's first indigenously built aircraft carrier. China's first carrier, the Liaoning, is a Ukraine carrier that was refitted at a shipyard in Dalian.
The PLA Navy (PLAN) commissioned the Liaoning in late 2012, and it recently underwent test trials in the South China Sea.
Ta Kung Pao later took down the report, although not before it was picked up by numerous international media outlets and, on Sunday, the official Global Times ran an article on Wang's comments.
The Global Times said that China's Defense Ministry had not responded to inquiries about the Hong Kong news reports.
However, the fact that the Global Times carried the story lent credibility to the Ta Kung Pao report.
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