A Chinese-Canadian billionaire will stand trial, 5 years after Hong Kong’s disappearance

BEIJING (AP) — A Canadian tycoon of Chinese descent is facing trial in China, the Canadian government said Monday, five years after he disappeared from Hong Kong during an anti-corruption campaign.

Xiao Jianhua was due to appear in court on Monday, the government said in a statement. It said Canadian diplomats were “closely monitoring this case” and providing unspecified services to Xiao’s family. He said no other information would be released due to privacy concerns.

Xiao, the founder of Tomorrow Group, disappeared from a Hong Kong hotel in January 2017 amid a surge in prosecutions of Chinese businessmen accused of bribery and other abuses. Authorities have never confirmed whether Xiao was taken into custody or disclosed possible charges.

Xiao’s disappearance came as the ruling Communist Party stepped up efforts to pressure people wanted in corruption cases to return from abroad to face trial. This has fueled fears that Beijing may be kidnapping people abroad. At the time, Chinese police were banned from operating in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system.

Since then, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government has tightened control over Hong Kong, sparking complaints that it is violating the autonomy promised when the territory was returned to China in 1997. The ruling party imposed a national security law in 2020 and jailed pro-democracy activists.

In 2015, five people linked to a Hong Kong publishing company that sells books critical of China’s leaders disappeared from the territory and reappeared on the mainland.

Before his disappearance, Xiao had a fortune estimated at $6 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks China’s wealthy.

An official from China’s securities regulator said in February 2017 that overseas Chinese accused of wrongdoing would be “caught and brought back.”

Hong Kong police are investigating Xiao’s disappearance and said the object crossed the mainland border. But an advertisement in the Ming Pao newspaper on behalf of Xiao that week denied that he had been taken against his will.