"It just seems odd to me that a regime which is basing a new blue water fleet on the submarine, and concentrating on developing and amassing anti-carrier weapons, would bother with an expensive-and in their view, eventually worthless-weapons system like an aircraft carrier."
A status symbol as well as a capability perhaps? It will really scare me when China has a competent submarine fleet. Until then, they really are limited in projecting their power.
An aircraft carrier is old war thinking. With modern ASW capabilities widely available, the submarine isn't very much more advanced.
I can't see the Chinese spending all that money on a carrier when they have so many bases around the world to develop--like in Panama and the Bahamas, for instance...