Is China Trying to Buy British Aircraft Carrier for $8 Million?!

The HMS Invincible during her glory days…now in mothballs

Defensetech has the bizarre story of the efforts to buy the British HMS Invincible, now retired, by a Chinese businessman. As they note, we’ve seen this before:

“Well, it looks like China just can’t get enough of old Cold War aircraft carriers. A Hong Kong businessman has apparently offered the United Kingdom almost $8 million to buy the ex-HMS Invincible, one of the two carriers Britain sent to take back the Falkland Island’s in 1982.

The businessman, says that he wants to tow the ship to Zhuhai and turn it into a school that will help foster ties between Britain and China.

When have we heard something like this before? Oh right, when a group of Hong Kong businessmen bought the ex-Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag in the late 1990s. You know, the the ship that’s being readied for launch by the PLAN next year.

One of those Hong Kong businessmen — who said they were buying the Varyag to turn it into a casino — allegedly had ties to the Chinese military and six of the company’s board members lived near a major Chinese shipyard in Yantai.”

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