If the aircraft carrier was dead, China wouldn’t be building new ones.
Aircraft carriers (like battleships in the past) are essentially status symbols of navies. Just like how a navy in the past wouldn't have been taken seriously without at least possessing a fleet of battleships, a navy of today would not be taken seriously without at least possessing a fleet of carriers. This does not mean that they are practical, the previous status symbol, the battleship was proven obsolete by the carrier. The carrier may soon be proven obsolete by the surface-to-surface missile, but that does not reduce its present status.
If China had nothing but a massive spam fleets of corvettes, would its navy be taken seriously?
It's like how America and the Soviet Union competed over who could make the largest nuclear bomb, the Americans testing a 10MT nuclear bomb (Castle Bravo) and the Soviets testing a 50MT nuclear bomb (Tsar Bomba). Neither were practical, and both were expensive and ultimately a waste of time and money. The creation of these bombs were a pure flex to the opposing power. No target on Earth would ever require a 10MT, 50Mt, or god forbid a 100MT (full-size Tsar Bomba) nuclear bomb to destroy. It is purely flexing.
China building these ships is not a question of effectiveness but merely a signal to the public and to foreign powers that China has a great navy and will not be bullied around anymore. Carriers are the ultimate symbol of naval power and dominance, of course China is going to build them.
You fundamentally agree with what I've said when you say this. It is not yet---or at least has not yet been proven to be---obsolete. Claims of the death of the carrier as a concept are premature.
I think China is not really in a place where it can afford to develop and build such a large, expensive status symbol if that status symbol was not also thought to be an effective tool for defense.
Carriers for China also represent the ability to produce ships like that themselves, which for decades they haven't been able to. Their first carrier was a Soviet hull, sold for scrap to iirc Poland, bought by a Chinese firm secretly and transported undercover to be worked on. Making their own is more of an engineering exercise than anything
Aircraft carriers (like battleships in the past) are essentially status symbols of navies. Just like how a navy in the past wouldn't have been taken seriously without at least possessing a fleet of battleships, a navy of today would not be taken seriously without at least possessing a fleet of carriers. This does not mean that they are practical, the previous status symbol, the battleship was proven obsolete by the carrier. The carrier may soon be proven obsolete by the surface-to-surface missile, but that does not reduce its present status.
If China had nothing but a massive spam fleets of corvettes, would its navy be taken seriously?
It's like how America and the Soviet Union competed over who could make the largest nuclear bomb, the Americans testing a 10MT nuclear bomb (Castle Bravo) and the Soviets testing a 50MT nuclear bomb (Tsar Bomba). Neither were practical, and both were expensive and ultimately a waste of time and money. The creation of these bombs were a pure flex to the opposing power. No target on Earth would ever require a 10MT, 50Mt, or god forbid a 100MT (full-size Tsar Bomba) nuclear bomb to destroy. It is purely flexing.
China building these ships is not a question of effectiveness but merely a signal to the public and to foreign powers that China has a great navy and will not be bullied around anymore. Carriers are the ultimate symbol of naval power and dominance, of course China is going to build them.
You fundamentally agree with what I've said when you say this. It is not yet---or at least has not yet been proven to be---obsolete. Claims of the death of the carrier as a concept are premature.
I am simply offering an alternate explanation for the building of aircraft carriers, nothing more. And the battleship wasn't obsolete - until it was.
Fair.
I think China is not really in a place where it can afford to develop and build such a large, expensive status symbol if that status symbol was not also thought to be an effective tool for defense.
Carriers for China also represent the ability to produce ships like that themselves, which for decades they haven't been able to. Their first carrier was a Soviet hull, sold for scrap to iirc Poland, bought by a Chinese firm secretly and transported undercover to be worked on. Making their own is more of an engineering exercise than anything