Unless it’s an aircraft carrier. Because even Chinese sailors know better than to trust their countrymen to build a reliable and safe aircraft carrier.
A Hong Kong businessman wined, dined, gave away stacks of US dollar bills plus $20 million price to Ukrainian shipyard officials to bring home a disused aircraft carrier which later surfaced as the Liaoning, China’s first carrier.
How the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) realized its blue ocean ambitions by getting an aircraft carrier at a throwaway price were revealed in an article today in the South China Morning Post. It details how the businessman, Xu Zengping contracted the unofficial deal on behalf of Chinese intelligence and was left in debt himself as the entire deal cost him US$120 million and was not paid a feng by Beijing.
The Ukrainian shipyard was led to believe that the carrier would be used as a floating casino in Macau and auctioned the ship in which Mr. Zengping was the highest bidder at US$20 million. There was no official involvement from China and the businessman contracted a Dutch company, International Transport Contractors to tow the huge vessel to Dalian port in China.
Hopefully, the US Navy won’t have to turn it into an artificial reef anytime soon.
It’s a LOT of work to prepare a ship to become an artificial reef – better to just declare war on China & be done with all those EPA regs! 🙂
Merle