Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Suave.
Cultured.
International man of mystery.
No, I'm not talking about Bond,
James Bond.
Meet Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.
Also known as Miles Kwok.
Ok, I know that image looks like something
we did to make fun of him.
But just to be clear,
Guo photoshopped his own face
onto Daniel Craig's body,
and then posted it on Twitter.
I am not making this up.
So at first glance,
Guo seems like your average Twitter bro.
Posting thirsty workout selfies,
taking vertical video of his small dog,
thanking his social media followers
with a tragic overuse of both the raised fist
and the prayer hands emojis.
Yes, Guo Wengui is truly #blessed.
He lives in a 67-million-dollar apartment in Manhattan.
Which I assume means
it has at least two full-size closets.
He’s a member of the exclusive Mark’s Club
in London’s prestigious Mayfair district.
He’s also a member of Donald Trump’s
exclusive Mar-a-Lago club
in America’s prestigious...
Florida.
Guo Wengui originally made his money
in real estate.
He fled China in 2015
after his relationship with Chinese Communist Party
officials soured.
He kept a pretty low profile
until he resurfaced in March this year.
Then he began giving out lengthy interviews
to Chinese media,
telling fantastical stories of corruption
in the highest ranks of the Chinese Communist Party,
and making himself out to be
an anti-corruption hero.
He said he was spilling the beans to,
“protect my life,
protect my money,
and get my revenge.”
He also said it gave him an excuse to,
“Photoshop myself in more exciting and dramatic ways.”
Guo said that “his information would help Xi [Jinping]
and Wang [Qishan]’s anti-corruption efforts.”
Whoa.
Xi Jinping?
Wang Qishan?
Anti-Corruption Campaign?
I think it’s time for a recap of everyone’s favorite soap opera
about high-level power struggles
within the Chinese Communist Party.
Previously on General Hostility...
Current leader Xi Jinping is engaged in a life-or-death
political struggle with former leader Jiang Zemin.
Xi has launched a national campaign
to crack down on corruption.
But his real target is deflated toad, Jiang Zemin
and his allies.
But Xi can't do it alone.
Butch Cassidy needed the Sundance Kid.
Winnie the Pooh needed Piglet.
Who will be Xi Jinping’s loyal sidekick,
going in together with hunny pots blazing?
It’s Wang Qishan!
Zoloft “before” picture
and Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption czar.
Together, they’ve punished more than
a million corrupt Party officials.
But the Jiang faction is putting up a fight!
They’re trying to destroy Xi Jinping
and Wang Qishan first.
Will Xi and Wang take down the evil Jiang
before Jiang destroys them?
Find out after this explanatory break.
Ok.
So billionaire Guo Wengui
said he wanted to help Xi Jinping
and Wang Qishan’s anti-corruption efforts
by exposing corrupt individuals.
He also promised to reveal
more as the months went on.
As in, not all at once,
but definitely later.
What’s his reason for doling out information slowly?
“To let the bullets fly for a little while.”
Ok, you got me.
We photoshopped this one.
Anyway, that’s an odd strategy
if your goal is to, you know,
actually make change in China.
But more on that later.
Guo first got tangled in the anti-corruption campaign in 2014,
when he accused this guy, Li You,
of insider trading.
Thanks in part to Guo’s help,
Li was jailed.
Li You had links
to former Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin.
So it seems that by exposing Li,
Guo has helped Xi in his battle against Jiang.
But it turns out,
Li You was Guo’s former business partner-turned-rival.
And this was actually just part of the whole
“get my revenge” thing Guo talked about earlier.
Chinese politics is like House of Cards.
In fact, Wang Qishan, Xi’s anti-corruption czar,
is reportedly a big fan of the show.
It’s the only thing that can make him smile.
Wang probably watches it for stress relief.
Look at how relaxing and uncomplicated
American corruption is.
Plus, he can’t resist Frank Underwood’s
Southern Charm.
No one can.
Now as you can imagine,
anyone navigating that environment of political intrigue
can sometimes say one thing and mean another.
For example,
while it seems that Guo Wengui is supporting Xi Jinping
and his anti-corruption campaign,
well, Guo has actually secretly been supporting Jiang Zemin.
Listen to this.
“Over the past 20-30 years,
without Jiang Zemin,
China couldn’t achieve today’s accomplishments...
In China today,
Jiang Zemin holds 80% of the power.”
What Guo said is not exactly true.
I mean, it is true that without Jiang Zemin,
China couldn’t have achieved certain accomplishments...
like spending billions of dollars to build labor camps,
and selling the organs of innocent Chinese people.
But what’s weirder is his
“Jiang holds 80 percent of the power” statement.
If that were true,
this guy would be China’s leader instead of Xi Jinping.
Instead, he’s in prison.
But Guo didn’t say that as a fact.
He said it as a statement of support.
It’s like when you’re listening to the radio
and you say, “Dude,
that was the best song ever,”
what you really mean is,
I liked that song a lot.
Because the fact is,
the best song ever is
the theme song from Duck Tales.
Oooh oooh!
Anyway, Guo’s comment is one way
China observers can see how he’s actually
on the side of Jiang Zemin’s political faction.
Now, Guo has of course denied this.
But Guo definitely has close ties
with lots of Jiang’s people.
According to the Epoch Times,
“Guo is close to disgraced spy chief Ma Jian.”
Ma Jian worked closely with Jiang Zemin’s faction.
That is, before Ma Jian was arrested
in Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign
for taking 30 million dollars in bribes.
(source)
And then started squealing on Guo.
So what kind of relationship
does a Chinese billionaire businessman
have with Jiang Zemin’s former spy chief
Ma Jian?
Well, let me tell you a little story
about how business is done in China.
Before Ma Jian was sent to jail,
he helped Guo Wengui obtain an expensive
piece of real estate in Beijing.
This is Pangu Plaza.
Which looks like the inspiration
for this weird building in F-City.
Anyway, Pangu Plaza has a high-end hotel
and three luxury housing complexes.
A single flat will cost you 16 million dollars.
But in 2006 it was called the Morgan Plaza,
and Guo Wengui wanted to develop it.
Instead, Beijing’s vice mayor at the time,
Liu Zhihua, gave the contract to a friend.
Vice Mayor Liu is such a jerk!
But fortunately for Guo,
Vice Mayor Liu had a secret mistress in Hong Kong.
How do I know this?
Because Guo Wengui,
“with the help of Ma Jian,”
placed a hidden camera in his room
and caught Liu and his mistress in the act.
They used that tape, a
mong other evidence of corruption,
to get Liu a suspended death sentence,
which usually means life in prison.
Then suddenly Guo’s company
was able to buy Morgan Plaza
and turn it into what it is today.
And Ma Jian was rumored to have been
given one of the condo units.
So Guo Wengui colluded with China’s spy chief
to take down Beijing’s vice mayor
so he could develop a piece of real estate.
And in a recent Communist Party-style confession,
Dangerous and illegal?
Absolutely.
But also in character for a guy who,
again,
posts this to Twitter.
But anyway,
because of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign,
Ma Jian is now in jail.
In fact, a lot of people close to Guo Wengui
have been getting hit in the anti-corruption campaign lately.
And it seems like Xi Jinping
may be going after Guo himself.
So despite Guo making himself out to be
a hero exposing corrupt officials,
he’s probably not really a supporter
of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign.
In fact, now Guo is going after the key person
he knows can hurt Xi’s anti-corruption campaign the most:
anti-corruption czar Wang Qishan.
...who looks like he wants to retire soon.
In fact, he was original supposed to retire this November,
after the 19th National People’s Congress.
But Xi Jinping wants to keep him right where he is
for five more years,
so he can keep purging Jiang Zemin
and his toadies.
But Guo wants to make Wang Qishan look corrupt,
so it would become politically impossible for Xi Jinping
to keep him on as the anti-corruption czar.
And Xi Jinping doesn’t have any replacement
that’s anywhere near as as capable.
So Guo Wengui has launched
a smear campaign at Wang Qishan.
Throwing shade on him
with blurry conspiracy-type diagrams on Twitter.
And if that’s too complicated to follow,
he also posted a badly photoshopped image
of Wang as a Joker.
And also as Leonardo Dicaprio on the Titanic.
He’s also been making unsubstantiated claims
that “[Wang’s] extended family has amassed
staggering wealth through a web of companies.”
...which, to be fair,
sounds like every official in China,
Guo has also said an Australian woman
is actually Wang’s illegitimate daughter...
She wasn’t too happy about that, by the way.
Then Guo goes on a live interview on Voice of America
and starts making more unsubstantiated claims
attacking Wang—
so much so that the host had to eventually cut him off.
Wang Qishan’s nephew holds shares in Hainan airlines.
What Guo Wengui said is only from his sources;
we can't verify any of that.
Yao Qing is the key person in Wang and Yao’s family,
and he is also a shareholder of Hainan airlines;
everyone seems knows this...
We can’t verify any of that information.
They keep threatening my family.
This is why I want to spill Wang’s secrets directly.
Let’s stop here today.
So Guo Wengui’s goal is to,
on one hand, praise Jiang Zemin.
On the other hand,
create doubts about Wang Qishan.
And weaken Wang so much
that Xi can’t keep using him to carry out
his anti-corruption campaign.
And in terms of the anti-corruption campaign,
Xi without Wang is like
Inspector Gadget without Brain.
Pooh without Piglet.
Me without Shelley.
Hey!
Who wrote this?
The point is,
Piglet is a former banker and economist—
and let’s say,
probably knows a bit about corruption himself—
and so Piglet is really the only one
who can carry out Pooh’s
anti-corruption campaign effectively.
Plus Piglet already knows where the bodies are buried.
I believe that was the plot of The House at Pooh Corner.
Anyway, the anti-corruption campaign
was already gunning for Guo.
And now that he’s shooting his mouth off everywhere,
several of his associates are being investigated,
the Chinese Foreign Ministry is calling him a criminal,
and China even got Interpol
to issue a red notice for his arrest.
And that VOA interview we showed above,
was threatened by China’s Foreign Ministry,
which said that it “would disturb
the 19th Communist Party Congress.”
Which matches up with worries
that Xi wouldn’t be able to keep Wang on
after the congress.
Now I’m not saying Wang Qishan (or his family)
isn’t corrupt.
Much of what Guo says is impossible to verify.
I’m just saying that when Guo Wengui
says things to undermine Wang, well,
that’s just Guo Wengui playing House of Cards.
And Guo’s cards are definitely in Jiang’s deck.
But we’ll have to wait for the Party Congress
in November this year to really know
if Guo has been successful or not.
So to sum this up....
Last time on General Hostility,
Rich jetsetter and workout enthusiast
Guo Wengui is the talk of the town.
But the closets of his million-dollar apartment
overlooking Central Park
are full of secrets.
Guo has a shady past with former spy chief
and current prison confessor, Ma Jian.
And both are connected with Xi Jinping’s
fake evil twin, Jiang Zemin.
As part of Jiang’s sneaky plan
to stop Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign,
Guo has set his sights on Xi’s sad sidekick,
Wang Qishan.
Will Guo get away with impugning Wang’s honor?
Will Xi be forced to betray his loyal ally?
Find out next time, on General Hostility.
So will our self-styled James Bond succeed?
Or have we been watching another movie all along?
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
As you may have noticed,
this is our first full-length TV episode.
The vast majority of the funding for this comes from you,
my 50-Cent Army,
who supports China Uncensored by contributing to us directly
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Please click the link below to visit Patreon,
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The future of this show relies on support
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Unless we can get sponsorship from Guo Wengui...
and I think our chances for that are pretty much shot.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
Hello? Guo Wengui?
You loved the episode?
Oh, you were being sarcastic.
But, hey, did you know,
if you went to China Uncensored dot tv,
you could have seen this full-length episode,
with other segments and a devastating
amount of jokes, last week?
Yes, yes that’s right.
Okay, I’ll see you at Mar-a-lago.