BEIJING –
Chinese authorities have refused to allow Canadian diplomats to attend the trial of a Chinese-born Canadian tycoon who disappeared from Hong Kong five years ago, the Canadian government said Tuesday.
Xiao Jianhua was last seen in a Hong Kong hotel in January 2017 and is believed to have been taken to the mainland by Chinese authorities. He was investigated by anti-graft authorities that year, according to news reports, although the government has not released details.
The government has never confirmed whether Xiao, the founder of Tomorrow Group, which has been linked to a series of anti-corruption prosecutions and seizures of financial companies by regulators, has been detained or what charges he may face.
The Canadian government said earlier that Xiao was to be arraigned on Monday, but did not say if or where the trial had taken place. It did not elaborate on possible charges.
“Canada made several requests to attend the court proceedings. Our attendance was denied by the Chinese authorities,” the Canadian government said in a statement.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he had no information about Xiao.
Xiao disappeared amid a wave of prosecutions of Chinese businessmen accused of wrongdoing.
This has fueled fears that the ruling Communist Party may be kidnapping people from outside the mainland. At the time, Hong Kong banned Chinese police from operating in the former British colony, which has a separate legal system.
Since then, Beijing has tightened its grip on 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.
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.
At the time of his disappearance, Xiao had nearly $6 billion, making him the 32nd richest person in China, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy.
Founded in 1999, Tomorrow has expanded into banking, securities, insurance, coal and real estate.
The company has become one of the most prominent targets in a ruling party campaign to reduce risks in China’s financial industries. News reports say Xiao is suspected of misusing money from banks and other companies to pay for acquisitions, but no charges have been announced against him.
In 2020, regulators seized nine companies controlled by Xiao. This includes four insurers, two securities firms, two trust firms and a financial futures company. Business magazine Caixin reported at the time that the seized assets amounted to almost 1 billion yuan ($150 million).
A retired banking regulator, Xue Jining, has admitted to taking 400 million yuan ($62 million) in bribes in a corruption case involving Baoshang Bank Ltd. in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, which regulators seized from Tomorrow in 2019.
Auditors found that Tomorrow had misused money from Baoshang Bank, according to news reports.
One of the Tomorrow companies seized in 2020, Tianan Property Insurance Co., put its assets up for sale last month, asking 2.1 billion yuan ($315 million).
Add Comment