Quote Originally Posted by Fisherking View Post
China acquired the former Russian carrier some time in the early to mid 1990s if my memory serves me correctly.

Someone may know why it took them so long to refit it and put it to sea. On the other hand they are in the process of building their own carrier and may have plans for more.
They have to retrofit it for their planes as well as cope with technological advances since the time that russian carrier was commissioned and put to sea.

Retrofitting takes a very long time and they would have to disassemble and then reassemble the carrier for their future plans as well as checking for defunct parts.