High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Since the 1970s, the People`s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has expressed interest in operating an aircraft carrier as part of its blue water aspirations, and press reports have frequently quoted senior Chinese military officials as expressing an intention to build aircraft carriers. In 2011, People`s Liberation Army Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde confirmed that China was constructing at least one aircraft carrier. On September 25, 2012, China`s first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, was commissioned.