Chinese aircraft carrier programme

Since the 1970s, China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has had ambitions to develop and operate aircraft carriers, and since 1985 has 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.

As of 2022, the PLAN has two active carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, with the third, Fujian, being fitted out. Wang Yunfei, a retired PLA Navy officer and other naval experts projected that China may possess five or six aircraft carriers by the 2030s.