According to Taiwan Focus News Channel, the initial
report cited Liu Xiaojiang, the former political commissioner of the
PLA Navy, as saying that the “government's industrial and manufacturing
agencies are now in charge of the ship's construction.” The report
also cited Ding Haichun, who was promoted to the position of deputy
political commissioner of the PLA Navy back in January, as confirming
that China’s second aircraft carrier is under construction.
Taiwan Focus News Channel went on to paraphrase Ding as saying that
“after the completion of the ship's construction, it will be
turned over to the Navy for training maneuvers.”
Want China Times, which is also based in Taiwan, also carried a story
about the original report on Monday.
This is not the first time that Chinese officials have commented
about the presumed second aircraft carrier. As I previously reported,
back in January 2014 the Hong Kong-based Ta Kung Pao newspaper quoted
Wang Min, Party chief of Northeast China’s Liaoning province,
as saying that construction on China’s second carrier had begun
in the port city of Dalian in Liaoning province. Wang said that the
carrier would be completed in six years’ time, and that China
ultimately intended to build four aircraft carriers.
That report was quickly taken down.
