China Admits to Building Aircraft Carrier

The head of China’s General Staff of the notoriously secretive People’s Liberation Army, General Chen Bingde, has confirmed that the country is building an aircraft carrier. The vessel, a remodeled Soviet-era warship, is expected to be ready for trials at sea later this year. The carrier is symbolic of China’s expanding naval power, and possibly of pending territorial disputes in the country’s surrounding seas.   Damien Grammaticas, a correspondent for our partner the BBC, has seen the ship and speaks with us about this recent news.