Was it not the sister ship to the Admiral Kuznetsov? I know that POS is still looking for a new dry dock to fix damage done to it by a crane. Both these floating follies were built in the late 1980’s so they are antiques. We should not underestimate the Chinese though, they are as perserverant a race as can be found. Why we do anything that helps them build their military amazes me.
Varyag was/is a Kuznetsov class ‘heavy aviation cruiser,’ yes. The Chinese knew it was an antique when they bought it and didn’t even try to make it an combat capable ship. It was rebuilt as a training carrier only - China removed the launchers for the P-700 Granit (NATO: SS-N-19 Shipwreck) missiles as well as the missiles themselves. As rebuilt/completed by the PLAN, the Liaoning (ex-Varyag, ex-Riga) has even lighter AA than usual for carriers and zero surface warfare capability. It has three CIWS emplacements and three 18-cell HQ-10 SAM launchers - about what you’d expect for a training ship to be able to train crews and maybe fend off a surprise attack by itself and that’s about it.
To give you an idea of what an operational combat carrier of similar size is armed with for self defense, the French carrier Charles de Gaulle mounts four 8-cell medium to long range SAM launchers, two 6-cell short range SAM launchers and 8 20mm cannons for CIWS equivalents.
The ex-Varyag is a training ship, not intended for combat. Looked at that way, it’s not exactly a POS - no more than any dedicated training craft are in any other military.