On March 3, 2002, before the large ships of the bulk cargo terminal in Dalian's inner port area docked at the port, there was a light rain and black pressure on a crowd. Wu Wei, chairman and legal representative of Beijing Taixinda Company — a man who gave everything he could to make the Varyags come to China — had a calm expression on his face at the moment. He was dressed in a white shirt, a black suit, and a light brown trench coat that fluttered in the sea breeze. Almost everyone around him was in the middle of this battle without gunshots. At exactly twelve o'clock in the afternoon, the Varyag, a behemoth that had sailed more than fifteen thousand two hundred nautical miles over one hundred and twenty-three days and nights, returned home.
The Varyag is legendary. Her birth stemmed from the struggle for supremacy. In the 1980s, the focus of the U.S.-Soviet hegemony shifted to the ocean. At that time, the U.S. Navy reached its peak after World War II. Fifteen aircraft carriers, a total tonnage of about 1.15 million tons (non-full load displacement), and other major strategic and tactical attack ships reached 132 (ninety-six submarines, thirty-six cruisers). In contrast, in the Soviet Union, in addition to the number of submarines (three hundred and sixty) far more than the United States, the number and quality of ships on the sea surface lagged far behind, only six aircraft carriers, and the tonnage, power, number of carrier-based aircraft, weapons early warning radar system, almost all lagged behind the United States.
At a time of imminent danger, the Varyag came into being. In 1982, when Gorshkov, then commander of the Soviet Navy, wrote to Brezhnev, he believed that coordinated operations (under the sea) is an important category of naval military theory, and in modern naval warfare, it is necessary to comprehensively use surface ships, submarines and aviation, and at the same time use careful early warning, intelligence, reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance and other technologies as a supplement to be undefeated. The Soviet Union has long surpassed the United States in strength and number of submarines, but sea surface ships, especially large integrated ships, are still unable to compete with the United States (Military History Studies). After weighing the matter, Brezhnev agreed with Gorshkov's proposal and decided to build three state-of-the-art aircraft carriers in succession, the second of which (No. 106) was the Varyag.
In order to meet first-class standards, the Varyag was designed to use a large number of the most advanced technologies and technologies of the time. Taking carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing technology as an example, before the Varyag (e.g. Kiev class), due to the relatively light weight of the carrier-based aircraft (about twenty to twenty-five tons), the runway take-off speed reached eighty meters per second. As the weight of the Soviet carrier-based aircraft increased to about thirty tons, and the take-off speed reached at least ninety-five to one hundred meters per second, the original take-off technology and runway length and strength had to be changed, or steam ejection technology had to be selected. Increasing the length of the runway was not realistic (the full hull strength had to be increased at the same time), and eventually steam ejection techniques were applied to the Varyag (which could not be achieved due to a engineering stop). These design improvements are beneficial to China's future hull modifications.
Construction of the Varyag was so rapid that construction began in 1985 at the Nikolaev Shipyard in Ukraine, launched in November 1988 and began construction inside the hull, and by November 1991 the completion rate had reached 68 percent. However, the Soviet Union collapsed. Subsequently, the ownership of the Varyag was embarrassing: it was part of the Soviet Navy, but it was built in Ukraine. However, at the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia had no time to take care of this matter, and Ukraine could not continue to build (the gross national product in 1991 was about 77.4 billion US dollars, and the remaining construction of the Varyag cost at least 200 million US dollars), so the Varyag quietly hovered next to the city of Nikolayev.
Suddenly separated from the Soviet Union, Ukraine faced enormous economic pressures while becoming independent. The Varyag has clearly become a Ukrainian chicken rib – discarded advantageously, tastelessly eaten. We seized this opportunity and began planning to pocket this behemoth. Overall, from 1998 to 2002, Varyag's return journey went through two phases: civil and state operation.
The main figures of the civil operation are Xu Zengping and Wu Wei. In 1998, Xu Zengping, who was doing business in Hong Kong, learned of Ukraine's intention to sell the Varyag, and set up the Macau Creation Law Company, with the intention of transporting it back to China by purchasing the Varyag and turning it into a huge commercial entertainment vessel. On May 25, Xu Zengping signed a contract with the Ukrainian Black Sea Shipyard for the purchase of the Varyag, which cost 20 million US dollars, but Xu Zengping could not afford to pay the huge amount alone, but only raised the first contract payment of two million US dollars in advance.
The appearance of Wu Wei changed this situation. On May 28, Wu Wei and Xu Zengping repeatedly discussed the historical and economic significance of the project and believed that if the project could be successful, it would not only benefit the country and the people, but also greatly benefit the economy, so they decided to invest 20 million yuan in advance to help Xu Zengping start the project, and the remaining funds were made up through financing. Subsequently, after extensive consultations, talks and financing, we finally settled the balance with the Ukrainian side on October 29 of the same year.
On the right is Wu Wei
Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed. After the purchase, the design and construction drawings of the aircraft carrier weighing more than 20 tons, as well as various materials, were first transported back to China. However, when the hull was consigned, the United States, which had long been unable to hold back, finally began to intervene. Since China's victory over the Asia-Pacific financial crisis, the United States has been impressed by China's national strength and ability to withstand various risks; the purchase of varyag is another major step in the rise of the Chinese navy. Since the United States did not succeed in hindering us during the purchase period, it could only be obstructed during the delivery of the hull.
The planned route for the delivery of the Varyag was to start from the city of Nikolaev, go south through the western Black Sea, pass through istanbul's Bosphorus, enter the Sea of Marmara, and then pass through the Dardanelles and enter the Greek Aegean Sea. Then continue south, successively through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, into the Arabian Sea, and then detour through Southeast Asia, sail to the South China Sea, and finally go north to Dalian. Of these routes, the most likely to be affected by U.S. interference are those in Turkey, Greece, and Southeast Asia. In fact, we did encounter great obstacles in Turkey and Southeast Asia, but we got the help of Greece. Greece, after paying two prices, helped China transport the Varyag, and this reward was the envy of the world.
The Varyag's voyage through the Black Sea was relatively smooth, but when it sailed into the Bosphorus, it encountered a huge obstacle from Turkey. On 17 June 2000, Turkey prevented varyag from passing through the strait and allowed it to return to the Black Sea. The reasons for this are: First, the hull is too large, the length reaches 304 meters, the width reaches 70.5 meters, the draft is about 10 meters, while the narrowest part of the strait is only less than 600 meters, the depth is not large, and there are many monuments on both sides of the strait, in case the hull runs aground or collides with the two sides of the strait, or even hits the historical sites, the consequences are very serious.
When Yao Kuangyi, then Chinese ambassador to Turkey, asked why the sister ship Kuznetsov, which was in the same class as Varyag, could pass through the strait, the Turkish side replied: The Kuznetsov aircraft carrier was loaded with a complete power system, and the Varyag lacked a power system and could only be towed by a tugboat, resulting in a sudden increase in risk - unless a complete power system was installed - but this was not realistic at the time.
Finally, after nearly ten months of consultations between the two sides, the Turkish side finally agreed to the Varyag to pass through the strait, but attached as many as twenty harsh conditions, including the use of high-powered tugboats with more than 8,000 horsepower to traction, the installation of fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles, which can be put into use in time in the event of an accident, and the submission of a letter of guarantee of up to one billion US dollars to compensate for the material and moral losses caused to Turkey when the hull passes through Turkey.
After nearly ten months of consultation, negotiation and mediation, the Varyag sailed into the Greek Aegean Sea on November 3, 2001. This sea is dotted with islands and a more complex marine environment, and as a typical Western bloc country, once Greece decides to embarrass us, Varyag will face greater obstacles. In fact, Greece is hesitant about this issue, because the United States does not hesitate to use economic pressure and legislative pressure to threaten Greece.
The threat of economic pressure on Greece comes from the United States to build a healthy dollar alliance, which is the first price Greece pays. The coalition blamed Greece for nearly 10 percent of the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost since March 2001, and then stressed that if the eurozone does not appreciate the euro in the coming months, the U.S. will have to add up to nearly 30 percent of its tariffs on European exports. As a member of the European Union, the Pressure on the European Union by the United States is indirectly pressuring Greece.
In addition, Greece was experiencing a severe economic recession at the time. After joining the European Union, it is true that the downward pressure on the Greek economy once decreased, the real economy rose by about four percent in the first year, the inflation rate fell below ten percent, and the spread between Greek government bonds and German government bonds (eurozone standard) fell below fifty basis points, but the economic crisis followed and never fared away from Greece: the fiscal deficit accounted for a sharp increase in gdp, the proportion of government debt also increased significantly, and the competitiveness of export costs fell seriously, etc., indicating that Greece is moving towards an abyss of economic bankruptcy.
At the same time, the United States itself is not happy. While busy threatening to sanction the European Union and Greece, while being deeply affected by the 9/11 attacks, it also faces huge downward pressure on the economy. Greece is also well aware of these realities, and China, which recently successfully coped with the Asia-Pacific financial turmoil, has obviously left a deeper impression on Greece. In the end, Greece decided to resist the pressure of the United States and help China transport the Varyag smoothly through the waters of the Aegean Sea. Greece has paid another price for this.
As mentioned earlier, the marine geological environment in the Aegean Sea is complex, the weather is changeable, and it is not unusual for sailing ships to encounter wave storms. In November 2001, the Varyag sailed into the waters off the island of Eupya in the Aegean Sea when it encountered bad weather and was hit by an ocean storm. To this end, Greece has specially mobilized four giant tugboats of several thousand tons to assist our tugboats in transporting them. Together with our previous eleven tugboats, a total of fifteen escorted the Varyag. However, due to the ferocity of the waves, and although the huge Varyag did not encounter much trouble other than the bumps in the hull, three of the fifteen tugboats, due to the towing cables being blown off by strong winds, caused them to break away from the Varyag. Immediately, the Varyag began to lose its balance and drifted towards The Island of Eupia, eventually running aground in its waters.
At that time, there was a sailor on a Greek tugboat named Lima. When the ocean storm violently blew the tow cable, he tried to fix the cable in front of him, but he was killed. This is the second price that Greece pays. After the storm passed, Greece sent three additional tugboats and a conventional vessel to assist us in successfully towing the Varyag from the stranded sea into the deep sea, so that the behemoth could smoothly enter the subsequent voyage. Subsequently, before leaving the Aegean Sea, Greece also helped us many times in the transport of the Varyag (for example, when the Varyag passed through many parts of the Aegean Sea, Greece cooperated with us to control maritime traffic, which of course directly affected the normal passage of Greek ships). Eventually, thanks to the active cooperation of Greece, the Varyag passed through the Aegean Sea without any danger.
Zhi En Tu Bao has always been an excellent virtue of the Chinese nation. The Greek people helped us transport the Varyag, and at a considerable cost, we will not fail to remember, nor can we fail to reciprocate. And when China returns to Greece, the world will be envious. And when Greece suffered a huge debt crisis in 2009, it must have understood how right they were to choose China in the first place.
In early June 2009, Greece's debt problems intensified. At the end of December, Greece announced that the government's fiscal deficit had reached 12.7 per cent of GDP and 113 per cent of its debt, far exceeding the three per cent and sixty per cent red lines set by the EU in the Stability and Growth Pact. Subsequently, the world's three major rating agencies, HP, Moody's and Standard & Poor's, quickly downgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating. Since the determination of this rating involves the growth trend of Greece's gross national product and greece's balance of payments, as well as Greece's foreign exchange reserves and external debt structure, if it is lowered, it will hit Greece's foreign trade, investment and consumption sectors hard. As a result, Greece is already in dire straits.
At the critical moment, China intervened to save each other. Let's take the shipping industry, one of Greece's pillar industries, as an example. In order to help Greece revive the industry due to the debt crisis, China COSCO group bid in 2008 to obtain a 35-year concession to the container terminals 2 and 3 in the port of Piraeus, and turned a profit within two years, injecting great confidence into the Greek shipping industry. Inspired by the successful operation of Chinese friends, Greek local companies, drawing on our business experience, have successively turned losses into profits in this field and resisted the huge pressure of the debt crisis through self-reliance.
Eight years later, China is once again injecting new vitality into the Greek shipping industry. As a result of the success of the previous operation, China acquired a 67 percent stake in the port of Piraeus for 370 million euros and became the de facto operator of the port. During this period, thanks to China's help, the port directly added more than 2,600 jobs and indirectly added nearly 8,000 jobs. Moreover, it is expected that this support project can directly drive the Greek GDP up by 0.8 percentage points, causing The Greek public debt to fall by 2.3 percentage points. And that is just one of the many aid we have provided to Greece.
At a time when the world, especially the United States, is doing everything in its power to prevent varyag from returning to China, Greece has stepped forward to help China ship the Varyag at a considerable cost, and at a time when Europe, especially Greece, is in deep debt crisis, the rewards china gives are the envy of the world.