Chinese officials have prevented Canadian government representatives from participating in the trial of Chinese Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, the Canadian ambassador. The mansion said on Tuesday.
Xiao, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, will be tried in China on Monday, and Canadian consulate officials have sought access to the consulate, the embassy said in a statement. ..
The embassy's public diplomacy counselor, Nadia Scipio del Campo, said in an email statement sent to reporters, "Canada has requested several requests to attend court proceedings. I did. "
"Our attendance was denied by the Chinese authorities."
When asked for details such as confirming the location of the trial, the embassy took privacy into consideration. He said he would not comment any further.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said he was unaware of the situation when asked about Xiao's trial at a media briefing on Monday.
China-born Xiao, known for his ties to the Communist elite, hasn't been seen publicly since 2017 after being investigated in a state-led crackdown on conglomerates.
Authorities have not disclosed the details of the investigation.
Xiao was taken from a hotel in Hong Kong in a wheelchair covering his head, and early on the day he went missing, a source near the big guy told Reuters at the time.
Xiao was ranked 32nd on the 2016 Hujun China's extensive list. This is equivalent to China's Forbes list, with an estimated net worth of US $ 5.97 billion at the time.
At the heart of the Xiao Empire is the financial group Tomorrow Holdings Co.
In July 2020, regulators were associated with the group as part of cracking down on the risks posed by financial conglomerates. Seized 9 institutions.
In 2021, regulatory agencies extended the one-year acquisition period of nine financial companies by another year to "further accelerate risk-handling work and mitigate financial risk."
The extended custody will end on July 16th.
Prior to the seizure, a regulatory acquisition of Baoshang Bank, a lender once dominated by tomorrow, took place in 2019. Regulators have cited serious credit risk.
The nationwide lenders have been transformed into much smaller lenders, the hometown of Inner Mongolia in northern China.
In recent years, in a broad crackdown on corruption led by President Xi Jinping, many executives of major Chinese companies have been investigated or prosecuted, and politicians and bankers have also been trapped.
Among those who lost their grace was Jiang Jiemin, the former chief of the China National Petroleum Corporation, who was imprisoned for 16 years for bribery and abuse of power in 2015.
In 2017, Jiang Jiemin, the former chairman of Baoshan Iron & Steel, who became the deputy mayor of Shanghai after his love, was imprisoned for 17 years for bribery and requisition.
(Report by Martin Quin Pollard, additional report by Meg Shen and Ryan Woo, edited by Robert Birsel)
