China to build 93,000-ton atomic-powered aircraft carrier

[fatty]

Originally Posted by Letum

I wonder what they will do with it once they have it.

Come to think of it, China has the worlds largest army doesn't it?
What do they do with that?!

[/complete ignorance of far eastern politics]

笨英国人! :p

The PLA has historically been quite useful in propping up the Chinese Communist Party. I believe Most PLA members are also party members. Here is a small bit that explains it better than I can:

Originally Posted by John McCormick, Comparative Politics in Transition, 5th ed.

The PLA is not only an army, air force, and navy in the conventional sense, but it also recruits for the party, educates and informs people, and was used by Mao to act as an example to the people. Members of the PLA were encouraged to work on farms and in facotires, and the PLA even went so far as to abolish ranks in 1965 in order to stand as an example of egalitarianism. (The ranks were reestablished in the mid-1980s.

During the Cultural Revolution - when regular government effectively broke down and many government posts went unfilled - the PLA took over administrative duties, kept the Chinese economy functioning, and essentially held the country together. In any other country, it might have used the opportunity to stage a coup; instead, it helped neutralize the Red Guards and restore the party to power.

Nowadays the PLA is undergoing many modernizations. They have not really fought in any 'serious' engagements outside of a few skirmishes with India, Russia, etc., but lately are probably thinking a lot about Taiwan and south-east Asian energy assets.