The Chinese businessman who bought an unfinished Soviet-era vessel that became his country’s first aircraft carrier was yesterday quoted as saying that Beijing never paid back the US$120 million it cost him.
Entrepreneur Xu Zengping (徐增平) paid Ukraine a US$20 million fee for the Varyag, which was eventually commissioned into the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy as the Liaoning, but the price ballooned once towing it to China — a process that was delayed for years — and other costs were included.
A former PLA basketball player, he was chosen to negotiate the acquisition, posing as a businessman who wanted to use it for a floating casino in Macau, and then giving it to the authorities.
However, he told Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper: “I still haven’t received one fen [one hundredth of a yuan] from our government. I just handed it over to the navy.”
After years of refurbishment, the ship finally went into service in 2012, a symbolic milestone for China’s increasingly muscular military.
The report highlights the close connections between some wealthy magnates and China’s military, at a time when Chinese investment overseas is subject to increasing scrutiny.
The purchase of the ship was settled with its Ukrainian owners “over several days of alcohol-soaked negotiations,” the report said. However, Xu was left relying on friends to lend him tens of millions of dollars to complete the operation, he said, while he said the navy declined to pay on the grounds it “didn’t have the budget in the late 1990s because of China’s poor economy.”
The newspaper quoted an officially published book saying that Xu “bargained with the State Council for years over compensation, but Beijing would pay only the US$20 million auction price,” without making clear if it did so.
Xu said: “I didn’t feel real relief until it was formally commissioned by our navy 12 years later. The feeling was like finally seeing my child grow up and marry.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number