I've seen their battleship.
They have been talking about the mythical Chinese aircraft carrier for years now. Anything they build will be a joke. A lot of fun to watch and a nice target for our SSNs, but not a threat.
Chances are it will be a variation of the Gorshkov design India has bought from Russia. Silly thing.
Man you have a really short view of history. Does it stop for you at about 50 years ago? Military advancement is as old as civilization and even older than that.
The Chiense were the world's technological leader 1000 years ago and have the brains to get back there at some point in the not-too-distant future.
There is no immediate threat from China, but the reality is that an aircraft carrier has didly squat to do with defending a coastline. It is meant purely and simply for projecting power far away from that coastline.
It also requires a massive investment and integration of naval power. One doesn't just build an aircraft carrier, one builds a carrier group. If this happens, it is the first step in China beginning to flex its international military muscle.
If it uses that muscle to assist America in policing the world, great. If it uses it to protect rogue regimes and interfere with the the global order that is not so good.
The Chinese are neither reckless nor impatient. They see America as just another empire that will eventually fade away. When you have 5000 years of history, 230 looks like blink of an eye.
Maybe now. But what will be in 10 years? Besides - it is nothing new that the Chinese bought enough Russian Kilos with high-end European technology to blow all US-carriers out of the street of Taiwan. Their firepower is growing in a frightening speed. It could be the the pure masses of the Peoples Army that give them the weight and firepower to deal with everything in the far east. Including the US navy.
China already has an aircraft carrier, it bought the Varyig from the russian commies. Oh wait, it was just sitting there rusting since the chicoms couldnt figure out how to make it work, so they turned it into a hotel iirc. On a serious note, it took a Briton who invented the steam catapult to finally allow the USA to make its dominant carrier fleet of today. Point being that building a modern carrier requires the confluence of many industries and chicoms are not there yet. All this aside, carriers are actually a quickly fading asset in relation to tomorrows conflicts. We simply will not send one into the strait of hormuz out of fear of losing one. They are good and still extremely usefull, but their time is coming to an end.
I expect that their first aircraft carrier will be be less than formidable when compared to ours. However, they will learn much from building and deploying it, and even a relatively weak carrier gives them more ability to project power farther from their shore.
Military White Elephant.
It could also be a Russian carrier. Russia is thinking about selling a few of its old carrier hulls to China.
Maybe they can buy that carrier the Froggie's built not too long ago.