Chinese billionaires are getting disappeared
It’s all part of Xi’s power struggle
to snuff out his enemies
Welcome to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Erasing hard drives shouldn’t be difficult.
Neither should pricing, licensing, and use.
Securely and easily erase all kinds of drives with PC-Doctor Drive Erase, all starting at
under $60.
So Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been cracking down on the ultra-wealthy for years.
Officially, it’s part of his anti-corruption campaign.
But in reality, it’s mostly about power struggles with people tied to former Chinese
leader Jiang Zemin.
Recently, Xi Jinping has been talking about driving China towards so-called “common
prosperity”, which would mean cleaning up and regulating
“unreasonable incomes.”
That might sound reasonable.
Too bad Xi Jinping saying something reasonable is like a Sir Mix-a-Lot song.
There’s about to be a big “but”.
Xi says he wants common prosperity and good regulation.
*But*...
the Chinese Communist Party lives off.
Government officials and businessmen, including Xi and his allies, got rich because of it.
What Xi really wants to do is to crack down on *some* people, while keeping those who
would benefit him and the Chinese Communist Party safe.
No matter how rich these people are, if they even remotely pose a threat to Xi, they can
get into serious trouble.
Here are 5 Chinese billionaires who’ve been “disappeared.”
Starting with: number 5: Bao Fan.
Bao the latest Chinese billionaire to suddenly go missing.
Bao started his investment banking career in the late 1990s as a banker at Morgan Stanley
and Credit Suisse.
He later went on to serve as an adviser to the stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Then Bao founded China Renaissance Holdings in the early 2000s, which matched startups
with venture capitalists and private equity investors.
The firm later expanded into services like underwriting, sales, and trading.
This positioned Bao to be a leading dealmaker for tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent,
and the ride-sharing app Didi.
Unfortunately for Bao, becoming too successful in China is like trying to eat steak with
a dog in the house.
The CCP is gonna be like, “Say, that looks tasty.
Mind if I have a nibble?”
Which is why these connections might have come back to bite him, because back in February,
Bao went missing.
His disappearance was announced in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by China Renaissance
when it said, “The Company has been unable to contact Mr. Bao Fan.”
10 days after that announcement, China Renaissance added another filing saying that they couldn’t
find Bao, but that he was “cooperating in an investigation being carried out by certain
authorities in [mainland] China.”
“Cooperating with investigations” is a euphemism.
Think of it like a kid “cooperating” with her parents to eat vegetables.
But with the threat of torture.
According to multiple news outlets, Bao Fan’s disappearance could be related to investigations
on Cong Lin , China Renaissance’s former president and head of its securities unit.
Before joining China Renaissance, Cong Lin ran a major division of China’s state-run
bank ICBC . He played a key role in the strategic partnership between China Renaissance and
ICBC International.
In September last year, Chinese authorities detained him.
Which he was probably thrilled about.
You know you’ve really made it in China when you’re rich and taken against your
will.
That’s even more of a status symbol than a private jet at this point.
Cong and Bao were also involved in the fiasco that happened with Chinese rideshare app Didi.
Back in 2021, Didi tried to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
Which Beijing was not happy about.
The CCP launched investigations into Didi, and the company was forced to delist from
the stock exchange.
China Renaissance served as Didi’s bookrunner on the New York Stock Exchange listing.
Which could be one reason authorities are upset with the company’s executives.
But Bao’s disappearance is probably more than just about Didi.
Someone as well-connected and influential in the tech and financing industry as Bao
could give a lot of useful information about corporations, executives, and even politicians
for Xi in his ongoing tech crackdown.
The same could be said about other billionaires.
But you know, maybe if Xi wanted useful information, instead of kidnapping billionaires, he could
just stop blocking Google.
Our next disappeared Chinese billionaire is: number 4: Guo Guangchang.
Considering how dangerous it is to be rich in a Communist system, I’m starting to think
a lot of these billionaires have what Freud called a death drive.
Which you can learn more about in the latest episode of our channel Gamers Unbeaten, the
Psychopathology of Kirby.
Link is below.
Guo Guangchang was a big dealmaker in China.
“Starting with pharmaceuticals in the 1990s, Guo has emerged as one of China’s most prolific
international dealmakers, snapping up everything from insurance companies to travel firms.”
He owned the conglomerate Fosun , which bought the luxury resort chain Club Med, owned a
stake in Cirque du Soleil, and even owned the One Chase Manhattan Plaza skyscraper .
With influence and wealth like that, Guo had a reputation for being the “Warren Buffett
of China”.
In 2015, Guo’s firm reported him missing.
Photos on Chinese social media showed what appears to be Guo being apprehended by the
police at a Shanghai airport.
Officially, Guo allegedly sold property below market rates to Wang Zongnan, former head
of state-owned Bright Food Group who was sentenced to 18 years in jail for embezzlement and bribery.
But of course, official stories in China are about as trustworthy as a book written by
George Santos and Jussie Smollett.
I’d read the heck out of that, by the way.
Many speculate that Guo’s arrest could have something to do with his relationship with
Ai Baojun , then-vice mayor of Shanghai.
Ai Baojun was close friends with Jiang Mianheng, the son of Jiang Zemin .
Jiang Zemin may be dead now, but to Xi Jinping, he’s not forgotten.
Xi’s power struggle against people tied to Jiang Zemin continues—because they’re
still a threat to Xi’s power.
So it makes sense why Xi would go after Ai, and then Guo, all to dismantle Jiang’s powerbase.
I’m sure Guo’s “assistance” was much appreciated by the authorities, who eventually
released him.
More after the break.
Welcome back.
Lots of wealthy Chinese people end up disappearing after getting on Xi’s bad side.
Another billionaire connected to Jiang Zemin was number 3: Xiao Jianhua.
Xiao Jianhua was a child prodigy hailing from the poor countryside.
He started making money selling computers, and eventually he created his own financial
empire.
He’s best known for being a powerful asset manager and the founder of Tomorrow Holding.
He also has a huge, complex network of shell companies and indirect investments through
relatives and close associates.
The New York Times says he acquired stakes in at least 30 Chinese financial institutions.
This guy was more diversified than the Scooby gang in that show Velma.
Xiao and his family also ventured out into Canadian real estate.
Xiao seemed to be in a lucky position.
He had connections to powerful politicians and businessmen.
But just after 1 AM on January 27, 2017, Xiao was kidnapped from the Four Seasons hotel
in Hong Kong.
Leading to many other wealthy Chinese businessmen to think, “Man!
That kid made it already?
No one will ever take me seriously until I’m abducted, too!”
According to people who have seen video footage captured by security cameras in the hotel,
Xiao was taken by multiple plainclothes policemen who put him in a wheelchair and covered his
head with a blanket.
It’s a shame his female bodyguards couldn’t help him.
Yes, he had female bodyguards.
Years later, in 2022, the a court in Shanghai found him guilty of a number of financial
crimes, including scams and bribery, and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.
Why was he disappeared?
Well, Xiao is widely believed to be a white glove, which means he was a bagman for members
of China’s elite.
This includes relatives of former top officials Zeng Qinghong and Jia Qinglin.
Guess who they were allies with?
You guessed it—Jiang Zemin.
This pattern is easier to spot than the plot of every Fast and Furious movie.
But Xiao wasn't just helping Jiang Zemin’s guys.
He also helped Xi Jinping’s family.
‘In 2013, Xiao helped Xi’s sister and brother-in-law “offload a $2.4-million investment.”
Given how Xiao is so connected to everyone, it makes sense for Xi to get him so that he
can both dig up dirt on Jiang’s allies and hide any dirt on himself.
Xi Jinping is like a vacuum cleaner.
Partly because he’s great at handling dirt… but mostly because he really sucks.
Xi really doesn't like having any opposition.
He especially doesn't like opposition as overt as...
number 2: Ren Zhiqiang.
Ren Zhiqiang is a Red baby, meaning he’s the child of a communist revolutionary family.
His father served as a vice minister of commerce.
Ren made his fortune in Huayuan Property Co., a state-owned real estate group.
He’s also known for being a very outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party’s
leadership, despite being a member of it, earning himself the nickname “Ren the Big
Cannon” and “China’s Donald Trump.”
Ren gained a lot of notoriety in 2016 after he lashed out at Xi Jinping's demand that
all media outlets pledge loyalty to the Communist Party.
“‘When does the people’s government turn into the Party's government?’ he wrote
on his Weibo account.”
Which is honestly a stupid question to ask.
That’s like asking “Why are cats only nice to me when I have a treat for them?”
Because they’re evil, spiteful creatures that need to be stopped.
Am I talking about cats or the CCP?...
The answer is “yes.”
As a result, the CCP suspended Ren’s membership in the party for a year and muzzled his social
media accounts.
But that wasn’t what got him disappeared.
After Covid started, Ren wrote an essay criticizing the government for trying to suppress information
about the pandemic, mentioning how doctors were warned by police not to spread rumors
when they were sharing early information about coronavirus infections.
(Source: https://qz.com/1907060/china-imprisons-outspoken-tycoon-ren-zhiqiang-for-18-years)
Openly criticizing the CCP while inside China?
Man, this guy has more guts than the floor of a slaughterhouse.
This was just as China was promoting its “success” in containing the pandemic under the Party’s
rule.
Ren also alluded to a certain leader who was “a clown with no clothes on who was still
determined to play emperor.”
He also said that same naked clown couldn’t even cover up his ambition to be emperor and
his ambition to destroy whoever might want to stop him.
Hmm, I wonder who that clown could be?
Maybe the one with all those balloons?
Even though Ren never explicitly mentioned Xi Jinping by name, it’s pretty obvious
who he was referring to.
It didn’t take long for Ren to go missing.
Ren was later sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption charges, including embezzlement,
bribes, and abuse of power.
And after the break, the Michael Jackson of Chinese billionaires.
Welcome back.
Finally, it’s time for disappeared Chinese billionaire number 1: Jack Ma.
Jack Ma is the famous founder of the Chinese online commerce company Alibaba.
He was a total ham for publicity—speaking at international events,
meeting with world leaders,
one time even performing at an Alibaba event doing a Michael Jackson dance.
Then, his big mistake: In October 2020, he criticized Chinese policymakers for their
financial regulations.
And then... he stopped showing up in public.
Completely.
It’s not clear to what extent Ma was “disappeared” by force, but I’m guessing it wasn’t by
choice.
Three months later, he showed up in this video published by state-run media.
And since then, he’s occasionally resurfaced in other places.
But it’s a sad story...to the extent I feel sorry for any Chinese billionaire.
Jack Ma is barely a shadow of his former self.
He’s stepped down from his leadership positions, and his fortunes have plummeted.
And as you might have guessed, he wasn’t really disappeared just because he criticized
state regulators.
Ma had close ties to Jiang Zemin .
Long story short, many Jiang supporters were heavily invested in Ma’s other company Ant
Financial.
You know how a lot of conspiracy theories need boards like this to prove their case?
Well, to prove this one, you only need a chart
that looks like this.
The crackdown on Ma and Alibaba denied the Jiang faction a huge source of money by stopping
the IPO of a company that many Jiang supporters invested in.
If you want to learn more about that, I’ll leave a link below.
The point is, being a Chinese billionaire with connections to Jiang Zemin is like wearing
a red shirt on the USS Enterprise.
It’s a cool job, but not a safe one.
And this episode is sponsored by PC-Doctor Drive Erase.
There are a lot of reasons you might want to erase a hard drive.
When you recycle an old computer.
Before you send it in for repair.
Or if it has sensitive data that reveals your shady ties to Jiang Zemin.
Erasing drives should be easy.
That’s why PC-Doctor Service Center Drive Erase provides an easy, guided path to erasing
hard drives properly.
It automatically removes a freeze lock, and erases hidden HPA and DCO sectors.
And it uses the most secure erasure method available for the drive.
After it’s done, it verifies that everything got erased properly, and gives you a PDF certificate
that’s also stored on the drive.
Drive Erase supports MMC partition regions, NVMe namespaces, and multiple drives in parallel.
And there’s no limit to how many drives it can be used with.
So if you're ready for an easy-to-use solution to clean out your hard drives, use PC-Doctor
Drive Erase.
Plus we have something special for China Uncensored viewers: Get 10% off PC-Doctor Drive Erase
using coupon “DE10OFF”.
Use the link in the description below to learn more.
I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.