What the original?
It came stripped of everything including engines so your not correct
Interestingly enough that's the story that ran in the years prior to Varyag finally reached Dalian. What later according to those who ran the continuation works in China, was that it certainly look grim at first glance but after you wipe off the surface dust and rust, the true excellent condition presented itself. Actually I remember the CCTV ran a programme that in one episode, they got the first skipper of the
Liaoning who involved in the ship's construction phase to recall what they got through to complete
Liaoning.
By the time
Liaoning hit the final phase and about to launch, then they broke the story that the reality of the "destruction work" made by Ukrainian shipyard - in short, they may indeed strip down some of the valuable items to exchange for hard currency, but those were of lesser importance; the critical systems (especially the boilers and propulsion) the "destruction" were minor or even token i.e. nothing that Chinese shipyard can't repair.
Then there's the difference in terms of service and care afforded, in Russia and China - while Russia's shipyards suffers even today, from the 90s to today Chinese shipbuilding industry in general is in far better shape, thus they could give ships in their charge more care. The
Kuznetzov even in the immediate post-USSR days was known to have problems (to say the very least, it wasn't fully ready when it made a run for Russia's port on that fateful day), and in the decades that follows not much modernisation was rendered.
The
Liaoning, on the other hand, the PLAN ran her hard (even the mileage mostly spent in that duckpond but ironically, more than
Kuznetzov moored at port), but she certainly got the service package fit for a queen, and every time she came out of the drydock she looks tinkered.
Lastly, it should be noted that the
Liaoning was built by the USSR, not by Ukraine - the latter was so poor that they hardly clocked any further work on it.
