As the U.S. struggles with increasing debt and requisite austerity measures, including the possibility that Navy funding could be cut, it appears that China is building two indigenous aircraft carriers as part of a broad modernization program, according to a report on Reuters, as it was confirmed the country is refitting an old Soviet carrier for training. According to the Reuters report, China's President has made the navy a keystone of China's military ramp-up, and aircraft carriers are a traditional sign of global naval power..
According to an anonymous source cited in the Reuters report, a pair of aircraft carriers are under construction at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai.