If I was not mistaken, there were two factions at that time, one for carrier, the other for subs. The subs faction argued that carrier is obsolete, it can easily be taken out by barrage of anti ship missiles. It is also expensive to build, to maintain, to operate, and it is for power projection which at that time wasn't China's priority. China also had no experience building and operating carrier. Reading the article of how China got its hand on Varyag was like reading james bond novel, that's how difficult it was and how amazing those people involved.

China was also not as rich as today, and Chinese strategy is Anti Area Access Denial which rely more on missiles and subs. Not to mention China is doing most of its trade with the US anyway, so they probably thought there was no need to protect the trade route and building carrier could provoke the US. I could see the rationality behind the sub faction. The challenge was huge, and the cost outweighed the benefit at the time. China today is much different than China at that time. China has more resources, and the geopolitical challenge that China face today is also significantly higher. The need has changed.