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Reuters
Beijing — Chinese Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was scheduled to be tried in China on Monday, the Canadian Embassy in Beijing said.
China-born Xiao, known to be associated with the Chinese Communist Party elite, has not been seen publicly since 2017 after being investigated during a crackdown on a state-led conglomerate. The details of the probe have not been disclosed by the authorities.
Xiao was taken in a wheelchair from a luxury hotel in Hong Kong early on, with his head covered, sources near the big names told Reuters at the timehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hongkong-billionaire-idUSKBN15Q09Q。
"Our home office, Global Affairs Canada, recognizes that the trial of Canadian citizen Xiao Jianhua will take place today," a Canadian Embassy official told Reuters. Call by reading a statement from Ottawa.
"Canadian Consulate officials are closely monitoring the incident and continue to provide consulate services to his family and seek access to the consulate."
China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he was unaware of the situation when asked about Xiao's trial at a media briefing on Monday.
Xiao was ranked 32nd on the 2016 Hujun China's extensive list. That's the equivalent of China's Forbes list, with an estimated net worth of $ 5.97 billion at the time.
At the heart of the Xiao Empire, the financial group Tomorrow Holdings Co.
In July 2020, nine of the group's affiliates were seized by Chinese regulators. it was done. Controlling the risks posed by financial conglomerates.
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."
Extended storage is expected to end on July 16th.
Baoshan Bank was acquired in 2019 prior to the seizure. ..
Lenders operating nationwide have returned to their hometown of Inner Mongolia in northern China and have been converted into much smaller lenders.
In recent years, in a widespread 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 fell out of grace was Jiang Jiemin, the former head of the China National Petroleum Corporation, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison 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 Ai Shanghai, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for bribery and requisition. (Report by Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing and Meg Shen in Hong Kong, written by Ryan Woo, edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
