I guess it's only a matter of time, the chinese been holding it back for many years not because of resource/technology but afraid to upset the balance of power with the US. Looks like they finally decided to go for it. The thing looks like a piece of crap though, think it's a heavily modified old russian design like what they did with the space shuttle. Even the official news said they will use it only as a training vessel to practice take off / landing and more symbolic than combat worthy. Nonetheless, it's the first step towards another arms race... http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/06/10/china.military.superpower/index.html?iref=allsearch
Your crazy... we don't have the stomach to properly win a war and pillage wealth, we are running on fumes economically and the country is quickly devolving to 3rd country status is many parts.
What will be the end result of head on collision between a 60,000 tonnes carrier and 100,000 tonnes carrier? What will be the end result of head on collision between 40 tonnes battle tank and 70 tonnes battle tank?
Air Craft Carriers are used for power projection at a distance. It is mostly an offensive weapon. Whom does China want to project its power to? Commies do not attack any nation unless it is 10 times weaker. Against a nation of that strenght, Air Craft carrier is an excess.
as the original post said, they are using it for practice. you can't just build a carrier and drive it to sea, it requires many years of specialized expertise to learn how to land/takeoff/coordinate etc..on a carrier. And china has none of those, they can buy/steal the technology but not the years of hands on experience. That's why they want to build this, as a trainer. It will probably still be a decade or two before they master and have a few super-carriers that can match the US, but it sure is coming. Their aircraft is a whole different story, it's almost on par with the US now. Sure it's not as advanced as the raptor usaf has but it cost a lot cheaper to make and do the job ok, it's like 10 ak47 vs 1 m16.
I would disagree, few months at the most to learn how to takeoff/land and coordinate on a carrier. Have you heard of the magnificent simulators where you can crash 600 times and still come out smiling. Regarding building one from scratch and matching the US technologies that will take China decades for sure. However, Chinese doctrine is to buy/steal/reverse engineer technologies and that's how they have come up with their J-20 stealth fighter to field against the Raptor. China will always have the cost advantage. An Aircraft Carrier in the US can cost $4B while China can produce the same, if they have the technology, for mere $2B. Anyone wanting to defeat China all round, i.e. not only in military but also economics and politics, will have to defeat them in the cost advantage.