Bank boss joins the list of missing tycoons

A Chinese billionaire who oversees one of the country’s largest investment banks has vanished, making him the latest in a string of prominent business executives to have gone missing in mysterious circumstances.

Bao Fan, 52, chairman of China Renaissance, has not been seen for three days. In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company said it had not been able to connect with him, but gave no further details.

His disappearance comes after Cong Lin, 56, president of China Renaissance, was detained by Chinese authorities last September as part of an investigation into his previous work for a stateowned bank.

China Renaissance said it was not aware of information that could link Bao’s disappearance to the operations of the company.

When asked about Bao’s whereabouts, Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said he was ‘‘not aware of the relevant information’’.

‘‘But I can tell you that China is a country under the rule of law,’’ he added. ‘‘The Chinese government protects the legitimate rights of its citizens in accordance with the law.’’

Bao’s disappearance has rekindled fears that President Xi Jinping is continuing a crackdown on China’s finance industry, as part of his stated campaign against corruption and the country’s ‘‘disorderly capital market’’.

It is not uncommon for business tycoons to disappear in China under Xi.

Xiao Jianhua, 51, a billionaire known for managing assets for members of the Chinese political elite, went missing from a hotel in Hong Kong in 2017. Five years later, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for financial fraud.

Whitney Duan, 56, one of China’s richest businesswomen, vanished in 2017, and her whereabouts remain unknown.

Wang Chaoyong, a private equity tycoon, disappeared for 37 days last year before it emerged that he had been ‘‘co-operating with a police investigation’’.