In 1995, Macau's casino magnate Stanley Ho posed for a photograph on the doorstep of the White House with Wong Sing-wa which had a partnership with Chen Kai Kit. Chen was one of the key officials of Chong Lot Travel Agency and had good connections in Beijing.
In March 1998 the VARYAG was bought by the Chong Lot Tourist and Amusement Agency and in November 1998, Cheng Zhen Shu, chairman of Chong Lot Travel Agency, said that Varyag would become a multi-functional entertainment centre, with 600 room hotel, casino, discotheque, restaurants and night-clubs, and called it Ocean Entertainment Centre. Chong Lot was in fact a subsidiary of a Hong Kong company, Chin Luck Holdings.
In August 1999, Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption issued a warrant for the arrest of Chen. He was accused of helping to siphon off millions of dollars from a Chinese state food company. But Chen could not be apprehended as he was receiving treatment for an unspecified disease in a Beijing military hospital. At the same month, Hong Kong-based Goldspot Investments became a majority shareholder in Chong Lot. One of the directors of Goldspot had an address inside a military compound in Beijing.
In May 2005, the Varyag was placed in dry dock and, in early August, it emerged painted in People's Liberation Army Navy gray.