Career girl Zara jumps into bed with the Chinese
WHEN the Queen welcomed China’s president, Xi Jinping, to Britain last month, she hailed it as a ‘milestone’ in relations with the Communist nation.
‘We have much reason to celebrate the dynamic, growing economic relationship between our countries,’ she told him.
Her Majesty’s granddaughter Zara Phillips would appear to have more reason than most to celebrate. For I can reveal the company of which she’s a director has received huge investment from three top Chinese businessmen.
The trio have snapped up more than a third of the shares in Xinex Corporation, a Mayfair-based firm that aims to make a fortune via the internet.
Xinex signed up Olympic silver medallist Zara for the equestrian’s first company directorship earlier this year. It plans to launch various technology ventures.
Internet tycoon Zhu Jun, who has served as a member of the Communist Party’s Political Consultative Conference in notoriously corrupt Guangdong Province since 2012, has bought a major stake in Xinex.
According to the latest Companies House figures, his compatriot Yongxiong Zheng has obtained a similarly large stake, while a third investor, Maoji Wang, has a smaller holding.
‘We are delighted to have Zara as a non-executive director,’ a Xinex spokesman tells me. ‘She is bringing her wealth of experience in advising on equestrian-related matters. We are confident that Xinex will become a shining example of the huge commercial advantages that can be gained through a closer economic relationship between the UK and China.’
It is not yet known how much Zara, 34, will be paid, but she makes about £1million a year already from other business deals. As well as lucrative contracts with sponsors Rolex and Land Rover, she recently brought out a collection of horsey jewellery.
Her husband, former England rugby captain Mike Tindall, has spoken proudly of their commercial success. ‘They (the royals) don’t give us any money,’ the Yorkshireman said in January. ‘We look after ourselves . . . ’
To think, Zara’s uncle Prince Charles once dismissed the Chinese regime as those ‘appalling old waxworks’.