It also, however, led him into an unusual quest to purchase the New York Times. Chen is famous in China for sliding cash to victims of China’s 2008 earthquake,posing with stacks of money,wearing green suits and selling“canned fresh air.” But he wanted fame outside China’s borders.

On Jan. 5 of this year, he penned a bold editorial in the Global Times headlined, “I intend to buy The New York Times, please don’t take it as a joke.”

Comparing his purchase of the Gray Lady to a spacecraft taking off for the moon, he said he wanted to “rebuild [the Times's] credibility and influence. … The tradition and style of the New York Times make it very difficult to have objective coverage of China. If we could purchase it, its tone might turn around.”

He confessed he was “bewildered” that some had thought his acquisition funny. “I may be a maverick, but it doesn’t mean I like playing tricks. I want to purchase the New York Times.”

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The Times declined the offer, and he immediately queried the Wall Street Journal to see if it was interested in having him as its owner. (It wasn’t.)

“Chen said he was aware that many American papers were Jewish-owned,” the South China Morning Post reported. “He said he was up for the job since he had ‘equally competent IQ and EQ’ compared with Jews. ‘I am very good at working with Jews,’” Chen offered.

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