China To Build Second Aircraft Carrier Locally: Report

China will soon start building its second locally designed aircraft carrier in Shanghai.

According to the Kanwa Asian Defense, Shanghai's Jiangnan Shipyard was preparing to start work on the carrier.When completed, the carrier and another under construction in Dalian will give the PLA Navy two fully functioning, battle-ready aircraft carriers.

According to the report, Chinese shipbuilding industry sources said the design for the second carrier had not been completed.

The Kanwa report countered earlier predictions by Western analysts that the new carrier would be nuclear-powered, like the planned Soviet Ulyanovsk-class carrier.

The Ulyanovsk was slated to be Moscow's first nuclear-powered supercarrier, with an 85,000-tonne displacement. But like the Varyag, the ship was never completed and the hull was scrapped in 1992.

The first locally designed carrier is being built in Dalian, where the Liaoning was completed in a decade-long fit-out.

The Dalian Shipyard completed the new carrier's steel plate cutting ceremony at the end of last year, the report added.