Casino to Carrier: How China Turned an Unfinished Soviet Hull into Its First Aircraft Carrier

Casino to Carrier: How China Turned an Unfinished Soviet Hull into Its First Aircraft Carrier

16 Sep 26
Posted by: Haseeb Aziz
16 minutes, 51 seconds read
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The author, a former Bangladesh Army officer currently serving as Research Coordinator at the Osmani Centre for Peace and Security Studies (OCPASS), chronicles the Varyag’s Macau casino story and 15,200-nautical-mile odyssey that became the opening chapter of China’s modern carrier programme. A 15 minute read.

In 1998, an obscure Macau-registered company submitted the winning US$20 million bid for Varyag, the unfinished sister ship of Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov. Its declared purpose was civilian: a floating hotel, entertainment complex and casino. Doubts appeared almost immediately. Macau’s harbour was too shallow, the buyer’s corporate footprint was thin, and the territory had already rejected an application connected with the project. Yet the bid was accepted and the transaction ultimately went through.[1] The unfinished Varyag under tow through the Bosphorus. The voyage from the Black Sea to Chin…

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