"All this requires us to send a military force to distant seas to protect (these interests). In these circumstances, I think we need at least three aircraft carriers. Of course, depending on economic development, we could legitimately revise this figure upwards," he said during a meeting with the Chinese and foreign press. In November, the English-language China Daily, citing the official Xinhua news agency, said the Asian giant had begun construction of a third aircraft carrier. The defence ministry has not confirmed this.
China currently has only one operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a secondhand Soviet ship built nearly 30 years ago and commissioned in 2012. A second carrier - the first built entirely by China and known only as "Type 001A" - was launched a year ago and has been undergoing sea trials.
With just one fully operational aircraft carrier, China is far behind the United States, which has 11 such warships, but is on a par with Russia, France, India and Britain, which have one each, according to Nick Childs, a naval specialist at Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies.