China’s national defense ministry has announced that the country is designing and building its second aircraft carrier amid tensions in disputed waters of the South China Sea, state-run media reported Friday. Yang Yujun, ministry spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing that the 50,000-ton carrier being built in the coastal city of Dalian, Liaoning province, would be entirely of independent Chinese design and powered conventionally rather than by nuclear energy. “To safeguard maritime security, sovereignty and interests and rights, is the sacred mission of the Chinese armed forces,” the China Daily quoted him as saying, while drawing attention to country’s extensive coastline …read more
Source: Egypt Independent
