In China, a businessman has not given any news for a few days. And not just anyone, since it is Bao Fan, founder of China Renaissance, a major private investment bank specializing in investments in tech. This is far from an isolated case. At least half a dozen businessmen have disappeared in the country in recent years, more or less long depending on the case, as part of a vast anti-corruption campaign and a resumption of control of the financial sector and high technology by the Chinese Communist Party.
” China Renaissance is unable to contact Bao Fan. “, announced the group without further explanation. The disappearance of the wealthy businessman, one of the kings of Chinese tech, has the taste of a “déjà-vu”.
In 2017, it is Xiao Jianhua who disappears from a Hong Kong hotel. At the time, he was one of the richest men in China. Five years later, in August 2022, the owner of the Tomorrow Group is sentenced to thirteen years in prison for fraud, his company having to pay a fine of eight billion dollars.
In 2020, the disappearance of Jack Ma, for three months, is also making a lot of noise, just as the founder of the online sales giant Alibaba is about to launch, in Hong Kong, one of the largest IPOs in history, with his financial firm Ant Group. The operation is literally stopped at the last minute by the authorities.
Today, Bao Fan’s disappearance has Chinese business circles fearing that the big cleanup of the financial sector is far from over.
►On France 24: Disappearance of the “big money maker” of tech: Beijing against the billionaires, act II?