China`s 1st aircraft carrier instills awe, signals sea power race

China`s first aircraft carrier Varyag emerged from the port of Dalian in Liaoning province on Dec. 30 last year. When a Dong-A Ilbo reporter directed his camera from the top of an apartment near the port at sea, the huge vessel filled the camera lens.

After finishing its third trial voyage for 10 days, the Varyag remained anchored at the port without moving an inch despite high waves. With a size twice that of a soccer field, it looked like a huge claw pressing the sea, not a floating object.

Workers wearing fatigue caps aboard the ship, which is 300 meters long and 72 meters wide, looked like ants. A large crane 50 meters tall was loading and unloading at the stern of the ship, and a missile launch pad and a missile decoy system were seen alongside it. Eighteen transport ships were at anchor and cannons on the aircraft carrier remained covered.

A 20-something Chinese man whom the reporter met at an apartment building near the port snapped, "You`re a foreign journalist, aren`t you? Did you come to secretly take photos of the carrier?”

He looked at the stranger who peeked at his country`s key military strength, which symbolizes the resurrection of “Sinocentrism” and “the rising of great powers,” with a wary gaze.

Several submarines were spotted at the military port of Lushun 47 kilometers southwest from Dalian. They looked like 2,600-ton state-of-the-art subs driven by diesel engines. China has more than 60 subs, including a nuclear-powered one weighing 12,000 tons.

Many say China`s operation of an aircraft carrier is prelude to full-fledged competition over hegemony between the U.S. and China. This is because Beijing`s possession of aircraft carriers signals its intent to gain sea supremacy as well as to keep the U.S. in check in the Pacific.

An aircraft carrier carries 50 to 80 planes and makes up a carrier battle group consisting of Aegis destroyers, cruisers and subs. Such a group is equivalent to a country`s military power. Its operation radius reaches as far as 1,000 kilometers, so the vast sea and air space controlled by a carrier cannot be threatened by other countries.

koh@donga.com ysh1005@donga.com