A local Chinese government announced this weekend on verified websites and social media that a firm won a contract to supply cabling for a second Chinese aircraft carrier, but the news was quickly deleted.
Officials in the eastern city Changzhou announced Sunday on social media accounts that "in 2015, our city will focus on promoting some major programs," adding that Jiangsu Shangshang Cable Group won "the contract for China's second aircraft carrier," reported AFP.
The news was also announced on the Chandzhou Evening News, but both the newspaper article and the post on the Twitter-esque micro-blogging service Sina Weibo were deleted shortly after publication.
China purchased its first aircraft carrier from Ukraine in 1998 and put it into service in 2012. The country's defense spending is growing by double digits annually, according to The Washington Post.
The naval addition is part of an effort to take a more assertive stance in territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, according to Reuters. China has been involved over the years in occasional confrontations with Japan and the Philippines.
The Chinese defense ministry said last week that its upcoming military training will focus on "improving fighting capacity" to win "local wars," according to AFP.
A top official in the northern Liaoning province was cited by media last year as saying that China was indeed building a new aircraft carrier and expected to have a fleet of at least four carriers.
However, neither the government nor the military has officially acknowledged its development, instead working to keep the news under wraps.
Following the latest reports, Chinese commentators on Monday called for even more aircraft carriers to be built due to "Western-backed provocations," AFP reported.
"China is now the world's second-largest economy, but its only flattop is a training ship rebuilt from an ex-Soviet aircraft carrier," Sun Xiaobo of the nationally affiliated Global Times wrote in an op-ed.
"This is no match to the country's economic strength," Xizobo said.
