GettyIn rather worrying news a number of Chinese billionaires and CEOs have disappeared only to turn up days or weeks later with no explanation for their disappearance.
According to News.co.au, 34 high-profile Chinese businessmen have mysteriously disappeared in the last 12 months with the latest being Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese-born Canadian tycoon who was kidnapped from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong.
It’s alleged that Hong Kong police have seized CCTV footage which shows Mainland security agents escorting him from the hotel without a struggle on January 27.
Missing Chinese billionaire Xiao Jianhua ‘last seen at HK’s Four Seasons Hotel’ before entering mainland https://t.co/Aili9LjCcS pic.twitter.com/dg0bV5E2M4
— SCMP News (@SCMP_News) January 31, 2017
These strange disappearances are reportedly linked to an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that has supposedly brought down a number of government officials and corporate executives.
However critics have alleged that it’s designed to target rivals of China’s President Xi Jinping.
Mr Xiao’s company, Tommorrow Group, then posted two comments on social media accounts which were later deleted claiming that Xiao was recovering from an illness.
On Saturday the Ming Pao newspaper published a front page advert supposedly written by Xiao.
Advert on front page of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao prints statement claiming to be from Xiao Jianhua, was deleted from company's WeChat pic.twitter.com/zMfe0yQGBi
— Benjamin Haas (@haasbenjamin) February 1, 2017
It read:
Let there be no misunderstanding! 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 (ruling Communist) party and the country.
Mr Xiao had recently denied allegations he fled to Hong Kong to try and escape the corruption campaign and is said to have worked as a broker for President Xi and his family.
Stocks linked to missing Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua plunge as mystery deepens https://t.co/gxT5fwCzff pic.twitter.com/1rgWwUqZU2
— SCMP News (@SCMP_News) February 3, 2017
It’s been speculated that Mr Xiao could have been connected to an anti-Xi coalition and Hong Kong-based analyst Willy Lam claimed Xiao could have been targeted because he knows embarrassing details about the fiances of major Chinese players.
South China Morning Post reports Mr Xiao is in mainland China and is in contact with his family.
Strange goings-on…
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.