By John Galt
August 3, 2011
On July 27, 2011, the Chinese government released a story via its state press agency, Xinhua, that stretched the credulity of anything anyone could ever have made up, even since the time of the old Radio Moscow World Service or Radio Tirana news broadcasts:
China refitting aircraft carrier body for research, training
Within the article, the following portion of the article is to assure the American people they should fear nothing from this as the Chinese military has refitted the old Soviet era aircraft carrier Varyag for “scientific research” and training:
BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) — China’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the country is refitting an imported aircraft carrier body for the purposes of scientific research and training.
“China is making use of an old aircraft carrier platform for scientific research, experiment and training,” said Geng Yansheng, a ministry spokesman, at a regular press conference.
The project marks the first official confirmation that China is pursuing an aircraft carrier program of its own.
“The warship is still seaworthy, as it has been docked at sea for some time. The time for its first sea trial will depend on the refitting schedule,” said Geng.
“As an important part of the research and training program, training for aircraft pilots is also in progress,” he said.
Fast forward in time all the way to yesterday when the Washington Times Bill Gertz hits another home run with this article:
China begins to build its own aircraft carrier
Think the Pentagon isn’t concerned, well think again:
“We expect China to build at least one indigenous carrier, probably two or more, but they have not revealed how many they intend to build, what the construction schedule will [be] or what their missions will be,” said a defense official familiar with intelligence assessments.
A second defense official said China regards aircraft carriers as key symbols of global power projection and is unlikely to build just two.
Other defense officials said assessments about the indigenous carriers are based on intelligence showing construction of the first indigenous carrier at the Changxing Island Shipyard in Shanghai.
But don’t worry boys and girls as the Communist Chinese would never use their newly created multi-ocean blue navy fleet for anything but scientific research such as to keep polar bears from drowning due to global warming or testing Taiwan’s radar systems to make sure they are functioning correctly. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C. our President and his ilk like Jeff Immelt are doing everything they can to reap huge personal profits while guaranteeing Chinese military dominance within fifty years. God help any freedom loving souls in the future.
Hard to get excited about it. We’re broke and really need to bring our carriers home to mothballs. China has jingle in her jeans and is setting up to be able to project power.
Sorta hard to harumph when we’ve been expanding our own power with our several carrier fleets going wherever we’ve wanted to show how big and tough we are.
“Freedom of the Seas” has long been one of our mantras. So, how to justify telling others that they can’t do what they want with their money?