Admiral Liu Huaqing, considered the father of the modern Chinese navy and a close confidant of Deng Xiaoping, died Friday at the age of 95, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Liu, who joined the Communist Party in 1935, reached the highest levels of China's power structure as a member of the politburo standing committee from 1992 to 1997. At the same time he was also vice-president of the party's powerful Central Military Commission.
In 1965, the then prime minister Zhou Enlai entrusted Liu with a project to build China's first nuclear submarine, according to the admiral's memoirs, extracts from which are published on the website sina.com. Nonetheless China did not have an operational nuclear submarine when Liu took command of the Chinese navy in the 1980s.
Liu recalled having argued since the 1970s that China should equip itself with an aircraft carrier, which it still does not have today, although at least one is currently under construction, according to Western military sources. Under Liu, the navy saw its resources increase considerably, and gained a capacity to operate far from the Chinese coast, which it did not previously have.
Comments
Comments are closed.