Chinese tycoon in talks to buy NYT

Beijing: First he handed out cash to victims of China’s 2008 earthquake. Then he sold “canned fresh air” to residents of smog-ridden Beijing.

Now Chen Guangbiao, listed as one of China's 400 richest people and a man known as much for his publicity stunts as his wealth, claims he is in talks to buy the New York Times.

“Soon, I will go to America to do three things,” Chen told a crowd on Monday night at a news media award reception in the southern Chinese boom town of Shenzhen, according to the semi-official China News Service. The first, he said, “is to go discuss the acquisition of the New York Times”.

Asked later to elaborate on his plans, Chen simply told reporters “the negotiation is currently underway”.

However, the publisher of the New York Times has previously denied it is up for sale.

“After a week in which both The Boston Globe and The Washington Post were purchased by new owners, the publisher of The New York Times emphatically declared ... that the publication was not for sale,” the paper quoted Arthur Sulzberger, who is also chairman of The New York Times Company, as saying in a statement in August.

Chen built his fortune, five billion yuan ($825 million) on a recycling company.