A Beijing without carriers? Here's What You Need to Remember: Varyag was not China’s first foreign acquisition. In 1985, Chinese shipbreakers purchased HMAS Melbourne, an Australian Majestic-class aircraft carrier. The PLAN scavenged equipment from the ship, and reportedly studied the hulk extensively. In 1998, a Chinese businessman bought the incomplete hulk of a Soviet aircraft carrier. Fourteen years later that hulk became Liaoning, the first fleet carrier of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Thus did China’s navy become the blue water force it had long aspired to be. But much could have gone wrong during this process. What if China had never acquired Varyag? What would China’s blue water navy look like today?