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Mystery over Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua's 'kidnapping' from Hong Kong - as wife drops missing persons report
A Chinese billionaire who is feared to have been abducted by Beijing spies from a luxury hotel in Hong Kong told his wife to cancel his missing persons report, it emerged yesterday.
Xiao Jianhua, reportedly one of the richest businessmen in China, vanished from the Four Seasons hotel last week and was reported missing on Friday.
The following day, police in Hong Kong said they received a request from Mr Xiao's wife to drop the case as she believed he was safe.
The tycoon's alleged kidnapping has renewed fears over the autonomy of Hong Kong, a former British colony which ostensibly operates without legal interference from Beijing.
Mr Xiao's current whereabouts are unknown - according to Chinese media, he was escorted from the Four Seasons Hotel by police and taken to an undisclosed location on the mainland.
The mystery deepened when a front-page advert purportedly written by Mr Xiao was published in the newspaper Ming Pao on Saturday. It denied that the tycoon had been kidnapped.
"Let there be no misunderstanding!" the advert said, "it's not true that I've been abducted and taken back to the mainland."
"I'm a patriotic overseas Chinese and I've always loved the party and the country," it added.
Two posts published on the social media accounts of his financial services company Tomorrow Group also denied the kidnapping, but they have since been deleted.
"Regarding the reports on me in recent days, I have to say that I, Xiao Jianhua, have been recovering from an illness outside the country,” one of the posts read.
It remains unclear why Mr Xiao was detained. But his case is similar to that of Lee Bo, a bookseller and British passport holder who vanished from Hong Kong in January 2016 and subsequently turned up in mainland China.
Mr Lee had published a book containing a series of sensational claims about leading Chinese politicians which is understood to have landed him in hot water with the country's government.
The British Foreign Office intervened in his case, and the 65-year-old eventually returned to Hong Kong in March.
Both disappearances have fuelled speculation that Hong Kong no longer acts as an independent judiciary that operates outside of the Chinese political system.
It's not unusual for officials, executives and other individuals detained by Chinese security to be pressured into releasing messages to their relatives or on their social media accounts claiming that all is well.
Such messages, coupled with censorship of reporting online by domestic media, have been viewed as part of the Chinese authorities' efforts to tamp down concerns about the safety of their abductees.
"People will be questioning whether Hong Kong is a safe haven," Hong Kong-based lawyer Jean-Francois Harvey told AP. "I think the answer to that question is very, very clear now, sadly."
According to the Financial Times, Mr Xiao was known in Chinese business circles as a "bagman" - a deal-maker who helps wealthy Chinese families expand their fortunes.
In 2014 he helped the family of President Xi Jinping dispose of assets - but insisted he "didn’t make any extra profits through their family clout”.
A hotel spokeswoman said she could not comment because of active police investigation.