A road is too long and arduous, and people often forget where it started, like an aircraft carrier.
When it comes to it, Chinese the first thing that comes to mind will definitely be the big guy named "Liaoning Ship", but if you talk about the emergence of China's "aircraft carrier dream", most people are confused and ask: Isn't it from the "Varyag"? Not really.
Chinese"aircraft carrier dream" can be traced back to the Republic of China period. At that time, the world's first aircraft carrier had only been built for 10 years.
So, what is the story of aircraft carriers and China? How did China's first "Liaoning" that could be launched and serviced come to China?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >01, Chinese dream of a great power: the Republic of China proposed a plan, but it took nearly a hundred years to realize it</h1>
In 1918, the British began building what they thought of as an aircraft carrier and named it "Athletic" in honor of their first seaplane carrier.
However, due to technical problems, the project was very slow, and it was not completely completed until 1923, which was a period later than the Japanese "Fengxiang" aircraft carrier, so it almost gave up the "world's first" name.
Fortunately, the technology of "Athletic God" is closer to the new technology common to modern aircraft carriers than "Fengxiang", and it is generally believed that it should have the characteristics of "the world's first aircraft carrier" than "Fengxiang".
In the fifth year of the birth of the "Athletic God", information about the aircraft carrier spread to Huaxia, which was in the stage of backwardness and beating, chen Shaokuan, then the director of the navy of the Nanjing government, first proposed to his superiors the idea of building an aircraft carrier belonging to China.
Chiang Kai-shek also believed the same, and he stressed many times: "If we want to save the rights of the Republic of China, we must develop a navy, establish the world's first-class navy, and make China a world-class naval state." ”
Chiang Kai-shek intended to train a navy of 600,000 tons in 15 years, but such a plan was obviously "fanciful" at the time.
In 1930, the Admiralty once again proposed the plan to build naval equipment such as aircraft carriers, but because of the non-stop civil war and financial difficulties at that time, the shipbuilding plan was like a castle in the air, so it had to be shelved.
When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, Chen Shaokuan witnessed the power of Japanese aircraft carriers, and the "extravagant hope" that was "buried" in his heart once again emerged, and he tried his best to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to save money to build 20 aircraft carriers, and Chiang Kai-shek said that he was powerless.
In 1945, as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression drew to a close, Chen Shaokuan, who had been waiting for a long time, made up his mind to realize his "old wish." He co-opted the Minister of War of the Nationalist Government, the director of the Department of Personnel, and others, and in light of the current situation of the Navy, formulated a plan for the separation of defenses, and reduced the original 20 aircraft carriers to 12, giving a construction period of 30 years.
Unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek was bent on "competing" with the Chinese Communists and had no intention of developing the navy at all, which caused Chen Shaokuan and Chinese's first "aircraft carrier dream" to disappear.
After the founding of New China, the "five permanent" of the United Nations, only China did not have an aircraft carrier, and Chairman Mao once said with infinite emotion: "I have been engaged in politics and military affairs all my life, and the most unwilling thing is that I have not seen a Chinese aircraft carrier so far!" ”
For the Chinese at that time, what they most longed for was that China could have an aircraft carrier of its own, not to "show off", but to hope that the Chinese Navy could undergo qualitative changes because of the aircraft carrier, so that their combat capabilities could be greatly improved and they had more confidence to maintain the tranquility and dignity of the motherland.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >02, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: "setbacks" again and again, making Xu Zengping more and more firm in his faith</h1>
Fast forward to 1997, when Reuters released a message that attracted the attention of a Chinese named Xu Zengping.
The report said that an aircraft carrier called the Varyag was ready to be sold due to the failure of Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, and that it was nearly three-quarters complete and was an aircraft carrier about to be completed.
Xu Zengping's heart beat wildly in an instant, and a thought slowly emerged from the bottom of his heart. He immediately ran to Macau, registered a tourism and entertainment company called "Chuanglu", and announced to the outside world that he would buy the "Varyag" and transform it into a sea play facility with comprehensive entertainment projects such as dance halls and hotels.
Xu Zengping found Shao Chun of Huaxia Securities and asked him to invest and complete the "big project" with himself. Shao Chun, who has always traveled in the financial ocean, immediately sensed a huge business opportunity from Xu Zengping's words and agreed without hesitation.
In October of that year, Xu Zengping personally flew to Ukraine to meet with the chief architect of the Varyag, Vinik, and visited the "giant ship" at close range.
Vinick agreed with Xu Zengping's idea of changing the aircraft carrier to an "entertainment ship", but he demanded that Xu Zengping must make a commitment that the ship would not be used for military purposes and obtain an import license before February of the following year.
At the end of January 1998, Xu Zengping boarded a flight to Kiev with $2 million. With the help of Counsellor Wang of the Embassy, he reached a preliminary deal with Ukrainian representative Asnayev to buy the Varyag for $18 million in full.
Xu Zengping first paid a deposit of $2 million, promised that the remaining amount would be paid in 8 installments, and asked Asnaev to purchase the aircraft carrier drawings.
Asnayev said the drawings were military secrets and could not be sold. Xu Zengping refuted that aircraft carriers could not be modified without drawings. Asnaev knew he was right, and after a brief thought, he offered a purchase price of $2 million.
Xu Zengping was secretly happy in his heart, but his face deliberately showed a look of embarrassment, as if he was extremely reluctant to accept the deal. The next day, Xu Zengping again boarded the almost empty Varyag to check it out and demanded that the Ukrainian side send more guards.
Seven days later, Xu Zengping did not wait for the original Ukrainian side to reply, he knew that there was a difference, but he was more determined to drag the "big guy" back to China.
Xu Zengping deliberately found Asnayev to inquire about the situation, and Asnayev secretly told him that it was the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other 5 countries that exerted pressure and did not allow Ukraine to sell aircraft carriers privately, and their people were trying to find a way.
Another 3 days, Asnaev informed Xu Zengping that the Ukrainian side would publicly auction the aircraft carrier after 3 days, and because the time was too short, the rest of the countries that were eyeing the tiger could not complete the relevant documents, so the ownership of the aircraft carrier must be in Xu Zengping's hands.
Xu Zengping smiled. On the day of the public auction, he indeed "snatched" the "Varyag" from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and other countries at the original price of 20 million US dollars.
That night, the planes monitored by other countries had been hovering near the aircraft carrier, and Xu Zengping, who learned of this news, asked the Ukrainian side to strengthen its guards and immediately ran to the shipyard to seal all the technical information of the aircraft carrier. At the same time, Xu Zengping asked the entourage to go through customs clearance procedures overnight.
The next morning, the sky had just been polished, and Xu Zengping, who had not closed his eyes for almost all night, found the Ukrainian side and began to negotiate the handover of the drawings.
They began to carry it around 12 noon that day, and the full set of 50-ton drawings took a total of more than half an afternoon before it was successfully loaded into the cargo plane bound for China under the escort of heavily guarded guards.
After returning to China, Xu Zengping found that the core drawings were missing, and with great anger, he approached Asnaev and accused him of lack of integrity. Confused, Asnaev hurried to help Xu Zengping check them, only to find out that Russian intelligence had quietly taken them.
Xu Zengping had no choice but to continue to put pressure on Asnayev. Thanks to the fact that the shipyard director of the Varyag was a generous man, secretly handed over the backed up drawings to Xu Zengping, so that the 50 tons of complete drawings were returned to Huaxia.
However, the return of the drawings does not mean that the "Varyag" can also come to China smoothly, because Xu Zengping cannot raise so much money in a short period of time.
He tried his best not to make it until 20 seconds before the original payment date was due 2 years later that he miraculously scraped up the money and completely owned the Vagrjan, which had been moored in the Bosphorus Strait for more than 2 years.
Unexpectedly, the return route of the Varyag was equally difficult. Turkey demanded that the Varyag return to the Black Sea on the grounds that the carrier was too large, and asked Xu Zengping to pay a huge fee for tugboats and berthing.
Xu Zengping, who had "lost" almost all his wealth, could not borrow so much money, so he had to ask the motherland for help. The motherland came forward to negotiate with Turkey and finally obtained the permission to "release".
In 2002, the Varyag arrived at the port of Dalian, and two months later, the state purchased the Varyag from Xu Zengping for 860 million yuan.
In 2005, the huge aircraft carrier was towed into the dock of the Dalian Shipyard and began to undergo the modification work; seven years later, the Varyag was renamed the Liaoning ship and handed over to the Chinese Navy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" >03, the birth of an aircraft carrier: it is China's first aircraft carrier in service and a symbol of China's rise</h1>
An aircraft carrier carries the "dream of a strong country" that has been Chinese for nearly a hundred years. The Liaoning is not only China's first aircraft carrier that can truly serve, but also a symbol of China's rise.
Just as people hoped for a hundred years ago, its emergence and successful service made Huaxia finally join the world's aircraft carrier "club", completed the qualitative leap of "from scratch", and demonstrated to the world the strong strength and great potential of the Chinese Navy.
At the same time, the "Liaoning Warship" is also the foundation of the Chinese country to defend the homeland, enhance the modern comprehensive combat and defense capabilities of the Chinese Navy, and effectively safeguard the sovereignty, security and development of the motherland, which is of very profound substantive significance.
But from the moment it appeared, controversy erupted over it and Xu Zengping: some questioned the liaoning's performance and combat capabilities, saying it wasn't worth China's huge purchase; others denounced Xu Zengping's "ulterior motives" and asked him why he bought an "empty shell."
In fact, statements such as these are pure "nonsense".
First, the Chinese Navy's positioning of the "Liaoning" is an experimental training ship. That is to say, its main function is only experimentation and training, and it is basically not put into combat.
As we all know, China's research and development capabilities in naval equipment are relatively backward, and before the "Liaoning" it was even more "unrelated" to the aircraft carrier, so the role of the "Liaoning" in China's navy is to provide a physical reference for our scientific researchers, so that naval soldiers are familiar with the operation and cooperation of aircraft carriers.
As for the rest, new achievements in China's scientific research forces can be expected. I believe that China will not disappoint Chinese, after all, the emergence of the "Shandong ship" is proof.
Second, no matter what Xu Zengping bought the Varyag for, it is undeniable that it is precisely because of his "first cut and then play" that there are all kinds of things that are later beneficial to the country.
Moreover, Xu Zengping "hollowed out" his wealth only for the "Varyag", and also needed to bear huge economic pressure and psychological pressure. As the old saying goes, he has no merit and he has toil, doesn't he? Why be so harsh on him.
Text/Wen Shi Wangwang