Chinese aircraft carrier programme

As of 2025, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has two active carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, with the third, Fujian, currently undergoing sea trials. A fourth carrier, currently called "Type 004" and featuring nuclear propulsion, has been under construction since 2024. Wang Yunfei, a retired PLA Navy officer and other naval experts projected in 2018/2019 that China might possess five or six aircraft carriers by the 2030s.

In the years after 1985 China acquired four retired aircraft carriers for study, namely, the British-built Australian HMAS Melbourne and the ex-Soviet carriers Minsk, Kiev and Varyag. The Varyag later underwent an extensive refit to be converted into the Liaoning, China's first operational aircraft carrier, which also served as a basis for China's subsequent design iterations. China's PLAN had had ambitions to develop and operate aircraft carriers since the 1970s.