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Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

nytimes.com

51–60 of 185 posts

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#51
Mossad abducted Adolph Eichmann in Argentina and took him to Israel. US Navy Seals raided and killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. Indian army stormed across the LoC and destroyed terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Chinese police captured Xiao Jianhua in Hongkong and took him across the border.

When are these actions justified? Only when someone is a killer or a torturer or a terrorist? Or are they okay in case of (allegedly) corrupt billionaires as well? Tough question, imho.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#52
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but no. Hong Kong is officially the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China". It's an autonomous region, but it's part of the PRC, not a separate state.

I was just going from this quote from the article. >who saw his abduction as a violation of the city state’s ability to run its own affairs, guaranteed by international treaty until 2047.

Exactly. It's a special administrative region with contractually guaranteed freedom to run its own affairs in all aspects (law, immigration, currency, economic policy, etc. etc) except for defence and foreign affairs.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#53
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the Canadian citizen part was more in line with money laundering and being a safe haven. I'm sure he's part of the contributing force on real estate increases in major cities across Canada (Vancouver/Toronto) mainly due (to my understanding) to being able to move money out of China and into something more stable, like Canadian real estate. It really pains me that people use Canada as a crutch to do their di…

The billionaires increase the housing supply(see Cityplace) or are buying such high end properties that the worst they do is make life a bit more expensive in the Bridle Path.

Where do the people who can no longer afford the high end go? And what about the people they displace when those people move into the "medium end"?

There is only one market for housing - over-paying at the top end causes a ripple effect which impacts everyone.

Aside from that, a lot of foreign money is buying existing property and not adding to the supply. In many cases properties are left empty, i.e. they are reducing supply.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#54
post #30

I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…

> Mr. Xiao’s fortunes rose after his graduation from the university in 1990, where he had been head of the official student organization and stayed loyal to the government during the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989. This guy is Canadian and Antiguan in name only, he's Chinese-born and trying to use his resources to escape the government that created his wealth. Of all the human rights/border violations that Chin…

That's probably why they forcibly moved him across the border, taking a step to normalize the behavior, before moving on to more sympathetic targets in the future.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#55

This appears to be an aspect of the anti-corruption drive that has been holding billionaires and politically connected people high up in the Chinese government to account of the law, with Xiao Jianhua caught in financial fraud. The controversy here isn't that China took Xiao Jianhua in to face the law, but that he was taken from Hong Kong, where an agreement with Britain gives its former colony de facto autonomy with…

I have to imagine it's pretty easy for the PRC to have a public (i.e. regular type) arrest and extradition carried out in HK?

Makes me wonder if the real purpose the objective here was to keep him from naming names in public/open court?

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#56

>Mr. Xiao is a Canadian citizen with an Antiguan diplomatic passport, though he was born in China. Ah, the Antiguan diplomatic passport. This has tax evasion written all over it.

Still, diplomatic passport, although a shady one.

I guess we could go an lock up all Chinese diplomatic representatives then?

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#57

I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…

I'm glad you're not this man's counsel.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#58

This appears to be an aspect of the anti-corruption drive that has been holding billionaires and politically connected people high up in the Chinese government to account of the law, with Xiao Jianhua caught in financial fraud. The controversy here isn't that China took Xiao Jianhua in to face the law, but that he was taken from Hong Kong, where an agreement with Britain gives its former colony de facto autonomy with…

The anti-corruption campaign is the official reasoning to clean up high positions of competing groups to the current leadership. Common practice when a new leader starts.

Thus, if people think the reason is not yet known, then they are probably correct.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#59

I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…

Ahh the old "he seems like a bad guy let's just hurry this up and skip all that messy due process stuff..."

That's not my point, at all.

The fact of the matter is that in political situations, there is a calculated risk taken by both states in a diplomatic conflict. At the end of the day it is about power and what resources are required to fight this. China has the upper hand here.

On the Chinese side, they have renditioned a Chinese-born, Chinese-made, PRC-living billionaire from a Chinese SAR that's more "one country, one and a half systems" and slipping further as China can get away with it. This man's rendition is likely part of an anticorruption initiative that started a few years back, given that it was done by Chinese security services. He pissed off the wrong people in the Party and now he is having to deal with it.

As the man is a Canadian citizen, the Canadian government now has to decide how much to protest this action. Protesting actions against their citizens requires political will and/or capability of enforcement. China has already stepped over the usual line and stolen him away anyway; will the Canadian state act? This is where I am skeptical. I don't believe that the Canadian state will find that this man is worth burning more than a little diplomacy on, maybe a protest or two.

Fighting this action requires burning political capital. There is a province in which these people have become woefully unpopular; unless a lot of Canadians get really angry, there is little reason for the Canadian state to do more than informally protest through an ambassador and at best a back room dealing or two to free him (e.g. we will share financial data on Chinese-Canadian citizens if you give us our citizen back.) Either way, by making the first move China has extracted something from Canada.

To add: I also believe that the UK will not do anything regarding this rendition. They have enough international issues to deal with re: EU/Brexit and I doubt they will feel that Hong Kong is important enough to their shrinking empire to push back on China with this.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#60

I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…

Ahh the old "he seems like a bad guy let's just hurry this up and skip all that messy due process stuff..."

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