A billionaire goes missing

HERE’S one sure way to know when Xi Jinping’s secret police have illegally abducted someone outside the country and then forcibly transported them to China: when the victim is obliged to issue a statement denying that any such thing occurred.

That’s what has happened to billionaire investor Xiao Jianhua, who disappeared from the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong on Friday and, according to police and the South China Morning Post, crossed the border to the mainland. On Wednesday, a full-page advertisement in Xiao’s name appeared in a Hong Kong newspaper, insisting that “it’s not true that I’ve been abducted and taken back to the mainland”. Previous abductees have been forced to deliver similar declarations, making them a clumsy signa- ture, rather than an act of concealment, of Xi’s thugs.

The regime certainly has cause to hide this particular kidnapping, and for more than one reason. It represents another violation of the legal autonomy Beijing guaranteed to Hong Kong when it obtained sovereignty over the former British colony 20 years ago. It is an affront to Canada, of which Xiao is a citizen, though he has spent most of his life on the mainland and no doubt is considered Chinese by the regime.

The disappearance also looks like an effort by Xi and other elite figures to cover their tracks. A prodigy who entered Peking University at 15, Xiao built an investment empire by amassing shares in banks, mining and insurance companies and other properties, and developed close connections with the Communist elite. According to the New York Times, Xiao paid $2.4 million in 2013 to buy shares in another firm held by Xi’s relatives after a report by Bloomberg on the family’s wealth. Xiao’s spokesman said he did it “for the family”, the Times reported. Another deal linked him with Jia Qinglin, a close ally of former president Jiang Zemin.

Xiao may be the legitimate target of a corruption probe: He denied rumours he was evading prosecution when he first came to Hong Kong, where he has lived for a number of years. But Chinese analysts believe it as likely he knows too much about Xi, who has been striving to consolidate his power and eliminate all opposition. To do so, he has been ready to take audacious steps outside China, where the regime is using visa denials, financial leverage, intimidation and, in the case of ethnic Chinese, kidnapping to silence its critics.

In 2015, Chinese agents seized five men involved in a Hong Kong-based book-publishing operation; one was taken from Hong Kong. Another, Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, disappeared in Thailand, and remains in custody.

Protests and diplomatic démarches had no effect on the regime, which appears not to grasp that its actions are helping to radicalise a once moderate and loyal opposition in Hong Kong. Xiao’s disappearance may add more momentum to the incipient movement seeking Hong Kong’s full independence, and it will certainly contribute to what already has been sinking investor confidence in the island’s legal system. Perhaps Xi regards those as bearable costs for his own protection.