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THE RISING SEA DRAGON IN ASIA - 2007 UPDATE By Jeff Head - Last Update: February 24, 2007 Throughout 2006 and into 2007 the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has continued its unprecedented modernization and buildup, adding two entirely new classes of major combatant warships to its inventory, along with the other twelve new classes they have been working on. Large numbers of new guided missile destroyers, guided missile frigates, fast attack craft, very modern and quiet diesel/electric attack submarines, nuclear attack submarines, nuclear ballistic missile submarines, logisitic support craft, amphibious assault craft, and the infrastructure and aircraft to...

<p>In 1988, when the Soviet Union dissolved, the second full-size aircraft carrier for the Soviet Union, the Varyag-sister ship to the Kuznetsov, was under construction in the Ukraine. Withe the Soviet demise, the Ukraine inherited the incomplete vessel but did not have the finances to complete her. In 1992 a Chinese delegation visited the Ukraine in the hopes of coming to terms on a purchase price of the unfinished vessel. A suitable purchase price was not agreed upon. Later, in 1998, the Chong Lot Travel Agency, a supposed Maccu firm, bought the Varyag from the Ukraine for $20 million dollars with the stated intention of making the Varyag a casino for commercial profit. As it turned out, Chong Lot had no offices in Maccu and was simply a front company for a Hong Kong firm called Chinluck Holding Co. Ltd. As it also turned out, the managing directors of Chinluck, had strong ties to the Chinese navy. It took three years for the front firm, Chong Lot Travel, to get permission to tow the Varyag through the Istanbul Straits and on to China. That permission was finally granted in 2001 and the following pictures document what has occurred to the Varyag since.</p>

For those following the continuing development and re-outfitting of the former Russian carrier Varyag in the Chinese naval shipyards, this photo should prove very interesting: That new yellow painting on the deck is a special primer used (normally) for laying down a non-skid surface on the deck of the carrier. If this proves to be true...then that is another clear indication that the Chineze intend to commission her militarily and to operate military combat aircraft off of her decks. This development is in addition to the two new carriers the Chinese have announced they wikk be building of their own.

An aircraft carrier for China? By David Lague International Herald Tribune MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2006 BEIJING As China builds a military to match its growing economic power, its neighbors and potential rivals including the United States have puzzled over a key question: When will the Chinese Navy launch an aircraft carrier?

Is China building a carrier? By Yihong Chang JDW Correspondent & Andrew Koch JDW Bureau Chief Hong Kong & Washington, DC Chinese shipyard workers have been repairing a badly damaged ex-Russian aircraft carrier and have repainted it with the country's military markings, raising the question once again of whether China is pursuing longer-term plans to field its first carrier. In the latest developments, images show that workers at the Chinese Dalian Shipyard have repainted the ex-Russian Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Varyag with the markings and colour scheme of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN). Additional new photographs show that other...

The PLAN is readying the former Russian carrier Varyag for something. These pictures show the exterior painting now being completed in the standard PLAN surface combatant colors, with the superstructure preparing to be painted. They have been working on the project in their naval shipyards for over two year now.

Chinese shipyard workers have been repairing a badly damaged ex-Russian aircraft carrier and have repainted it with the country's military markings, raising the question once again of whether China is pursuing longer-term plans to field its first carrier. In the latest developments, images show that workers at the Chinese Dalian Shipyard have repainted the ex-Russian Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Varyag with the markings and colour scheme of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN). Additional new photographs show that other work, the specifics of which could not be determined, appears to be continuing and that the condition of the vessel is...

June 8, 2005: The mystery of the aircraft carrier Varyag continues. After rusting at dockside in China for more than three years, the former Russian Varyag has recently been moved to a dry dock at Dalien (formerly Dairen of Russo-Japanese War fame). The ship is being subject to some maintenance. She is being sand blasted (to get rid of all that rust) and a scaffolding has appeared around her superstructure. The actual extent of the work beyond that is unclear.

BEIJING - Tight security surrounding a decommissioned Ukrainian aircraft carrier moored in China is fuelling suspicion about the Chinese navy's intentions towards the ship, a report said yesterday. The Varyag carrier has been berthed at Dalian port in north-east China for two months, ostensibly to be refitted as a casino for use in the gambling enclave of Macau, near Hongkong. But Hongkong's Sunday Morning Post said the 306-m Soviet-built ship showed no outward signs of becoming what its new owners have said would be the world's largest floating casino and hotel. 'Its stationing in the port, near one of China's...