AFTER TIANANMEN

On a snowy day in January 1998 Xu Zengping, a Chinese businessman based out of Hong Kong, stood on the deck of the Varyag, a partially constructed aircraft carrier that was being built by the Soviet Union at a shipyard on the Black Sea. Six years later, Xu had apparently bought it for US$ 20 million. It was reported that his firm had no licence, no real address and assets of only US$ 125,000, so it is unclear how it could afford to buy the ship. The report concluded that the Varyag had been boug...See More