A Soviet-built aircraft carrier will finally be allowed to head for Macau - apparently to become a floating casino - after Beijing intervened on behalf of its Hong Kong owners to end a 15-month deadlock with Turkey.
Turkey has until now refused to allow the Varyag to pass through its waters, and it is now anchored in the Black Sea. The breakthrough came after intense lobbying by China, which promised to boost trade and tourism links with Ankara.
Although the mainland denies any part in buying the Varyag, the Sunday Morning Post has discovered one of the Hong Kong-based shareholders involved in the project has an address in a PLA compound in Beijing.
Mainland military officials have made no secret of their wish to own an aircraft carrier. Last week, Deputy Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang visited Ankara for trade talks. A mainland official also recently met Ramazan Mirzaoglu, Turkey's Maritime Affairs Minister.
Mr Mirzaoglu had previously insisted it was not safe for the carrier to go through the Bosphorus Strait, a major shipping channel. But Turkey now says it can continue its passage, subject to safety checks.
Commissioned in the 1980s, the 300-metre, 60,000-tonne Varyag was intended as the pride of the Soviet Union's naval empire. But it was left high and dry when the Soviet Union collapsed.
In 1992 the Ukrainian Government, which had inherited the project, suspended construction.