The real reason why Ant Group’s IPO plan was halted by the Chinese Communist Party authorities last year was revealed to be the complex shareholding structure behind Ant Group, which involved several powerful Communist Party families.
The real reason why Ant Group’s IPO plan was halted by the Chinese Communist Party authorities last year was revealed to be the complex shareholding structure behind Ant Group, which involves several powerful Communist Party families. Among them, Li Botan, the son-in-law of former CCP Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin, has surfaced again.
Xi Cuts Off Jiang Standing Committee Family‘s Moneybags, Including Jia Qinglin’s
A Feb. 16 report in the Wall Street Journal put a number of former Standing Committee members of the Jiang faction on the spot.
Citing more than a dozen Chinese Communist Party officials and government advisers, the report said Communist Party officials called off Ant Group’s IPO plans last November for another important reason besides concerns about financial system risks: the complex shareholding structure of Ant Group, and those expected to benefit from what would have been the world’s largest IPO, has made Beijing increasingly uneasy.
Officials and government advisers with knowledge of the matter revealed that Ant Group’s prospectus masked the complexity of its shareholding structure just weeks before the IPO. Behind the layers of opaque investment vehicles that hold stakes in Ant is a coterie of well-connected powerful Communist Party figures.
Investigations by the authorities revealed that Boyu Capital, founded by Jiang Zemin’s grandson Jiang Zhicheng, held a circuitous stake in Ant through a private equity fund, Beijing Capital Management.
In addition, Li Botan, through his control of Beijing Zhaodu Investment, Tibet Hongde Century Investment, Fuqing Linsheng No. 3 Investment and Shanghai Zhongfu, finally became a hidden shareholder of Ant.
The real reason why Ant Group’s plan to go public last year was called off by the CCP authorities was revealed to be the complex shareholding structure behind Ant Group, which involves several powerful CCP families. (Screenshot from the Wall Street Journal website)
Li Botan is the son-in-law of Jia Qinglin, a former member of the Jiang faction Standing Committee.
According to the report, various events organized by the Maotai Club, which Li Botan founded in 2009, are seen by Xi Jinping as damaging to the CCP’s image. Sources close to the situation revealed that Xi said at a meeting with senior officials earlier in his term, “You people, you will either die at the drinking table or in bed!”
Hua Po, an observer of the current situation in Beijing, told the Epoch Times that the crackdown on the Ant Group is really about cracking down on the Jiang Zemin, Jia Qinglin and other Jiang faction forces behind it. These people have formed vested interest groups for decades, and Xi Jinping wants to break up classes like them and take their interests out of their hands.
Li Botan’s “Maotai Club” behind the huge forces
Jia Qinglin has one son and one daughter. His daughter Jia Qiang (also known as Lin Qing) married Li Botan, and they had a daughter, Li Zidan.
Li Botan was a trader in the head office of the Bank of China, and was the head of Asia for Harlowbutler (a British company) in Hong Kong.
“Maotai Club” is the clubhouse of Beijing National Wine Maotai Culture Research Association, which was jointly launched by Ji Keliang, Yuan Rengguo and Li Botan, the former chairman of Maotai Group, in December 2009. At that Time, the club had more than 600 members, who were said to “include the art world, the cultural world and many business elites”.
The site of the “Maotai Club” is located in the Calamus River Park in Nanchizi, Chang’an Street, Beijing. South Pizi Street has been part of the Imperial City since the Qing Dynasty, next to the Red Wall and close to the political center of Beijing.
In the afternoon of December 21, 2009, the inaugural meeting of the Beijing National Wine Maotai Cultural Research Association was opened in the conference hall on the third floor of Beijing’s Great Hall, with nearly 300 people in attendance.
Hong Kong media reported that the inaugural meeting was hosted by Zhao Zhongxiang and Liu Fangfei of CCTV, with Ji Keliang, then chairman of Maotai Group, as the first chairman and Li Botan, chairman of Beijing Zhaodu, as vice chairman and secretary general.
“Honorary presidents of the Maotai Association include Liu Changle, Chairman of Phoenix Satellite Television, Kong Dan, former Chairman of CITIC Group, as well as Qiao Qingchen, former Commander of the Communist Party of China Air Force, Liu Yongzhi, former Deputy Director of the General Political Department of the military, Zhu Qi, former Commander of Beijing Military Region, Qiao Zonghuai, former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yang Chao, former Chairman of China Life Insurance Group, and Tension, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fuli real estate Group. Tension, Chairman of the Board of Directors, etc.
Ma is not only the honorary chairman of the Maotai Club, but also the vice chairman of the first board of directors of the Maotai Club.
In addition, Che Feng, the son-in-law of former CCP central bank governor Dai Xianglong, is among the vice chairmen of the second board of directors. Che Feng has been accused of being a white glove of the Jiang faction.
Since the establishment of the “Maotai Club”, Li Botan has served as the secretary-general for at least two terms, and is the real manager of the “Maotai Club”.
In 2013 and 2014, the Communist Party of China (CPC) launched a high-profile campaign to “fix clubs” and strictly forbade officials from visiting private clubs. However, according to media investigations, the “Maotai Club” has been “de-licensed” but is still operating in secret.
Informed sources in Beijing have revealed that Li Botan’s best “investment” tactic over the past decade has been to rely on such connections and political backstage to make a lot of money.
Jia Qinglin, a close associate of former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin, was deeply involved in the Xiamen Yuanhua case in 2000, which involved a large number of high-ranking Communist Party officials, and was protected by Jiang Zemin.
Jiangnan Association is one of the branches of the “Maotai Association
Public information shows that the “Maotai Club”, in addition to the Nan Chi Zi Beijing General Association, there are also the Maotai Pujiang Club in Shanghai, the Maotai Jiangnan Club in Hangzhou, the Maotai Lingnan Club in Guangzhou and the Maotai Sanjiang Club in Dalian.
“Jiangnan Club” is a clubhouse invested by Jack Ma, whose initiators include Jack Ma, Ding Lei, Chen Tianqiao, Feng Gensheng, Shen Guojun, Song Weiping, Lu Weiding and Guo Guangchang, eight business tycoons from Zhejiang. “Jiangnan Club” is also regarded as a branch of the “Maotai Club”.
According to an article in the land media, there was a famous dinner party in Hangzhou, which was attended by more than 100 celebrities, including Jack Ma, Guo Guangchang, Ding Lei, Shen Guojun, Feng Gensheng, Ji Keliang, Chen Kaige and his wife, Yu Kui Zhi and Fang Fang. It is said that the “Jiangnan Party” and the “Maotai Party” in Beijing can drink a slightly different kind of Maotai wine.
In January 2014, the Standing Committee of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee held a special meeting to convey Xi Jinping’s instructions on the issue of high-end “clubs” in the West Lake scenic area, and asked the Hangzhou Municipal Government to rectify and shut down the high-end “clubs” in the West Lake scenic area.
After that, the “Jiangnan Club” and other high-end business premises “voluntarily shut down”.
Many media reported that Xi Jinping was once furious at the third plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, denouncing “why corruption on the tip of the tongue is repeatedly prohibited? Is there a backstage?” He also directly named private clubs in Beihai Park and West Lake scenic area.
The rumors of Jia Qinglin’s family corruption spread throughout the capital
Over the years, the corruption scandal of Jia Qinglin’s family has spread throughout the capital.
According to reports, Jia Qinglin’s son was sentenced to five years in Australia in 1993 for money laundering, while Jia Qiang allegedly earned hundreds of millions of yuan empty-handed.
Since 1996, when Jia Qinglin was transferred by Jiang Zemin to Beijing as mayor and municipal party secretary, the Jia family’s chain of interests has also shifted from Fujian to Beijing.
Li Botan established Beijing Zhaodu in 2005 with a registered capital of RMB 100 million, a private investment holding group involved in real estate, energy, Education, advertising and other industries, with investments in Beijing, Hebei, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Yunnan, Hainan and other places.
In the field of real estate investment, it mainly focuses on tourism, commercial real estate and high-end residential properties, with projects located in Beijing, Zhejiang, Yunnan and Hainan.
In the energy sector, we focus on investment in coal, oil, water and non-ferrous metals, and have invested in the development of coal and mineral resources in Yunnan and Xinjiang and have invested in several projects.
In the media field, it has two advertising companies with media resources, operating advertising businesses such as road nameplates, cab stands, subway lobbies, the whole line of the airport express rail, and the single column of the East Fourth Ring Road in Beijing.
(Web screenshot)
In the field of education, the company invested in the establishment of Beijing International Hotel Management Institute in Beijing in cooperation with Lausanne Hotel Management Institute in Switzerland and Beijing Second Foreign Language University.
In the cultural field, the company invested in the establishment of Forever International Auction Company, bringing Christie’s into the Chinese auction market.
In addition, the company acquired a 30-year BOT investment and construction operation right for the new airport expressway in Kunming. The total investment amounted to RMB 2.2 billion.
Xiao Jianhua, the head of the Tomorrow family, is considered the “white glove” of the Zeng Qinghong family, and has close ties with a number of Jiang’s “princelings”, including Li Botan.
In January 2009, the listed company Baotou Tomorrow Technology Co. announced that it had invested 350 million yuan to buy a real estate company in the ancient city of Lijiang from Beijing Zhaodu.
Xi goes after Jia Qinglin’s family
Since the second half of 2013, Li Botan has rarely appeared in public as the secretary-general of the Maotai Association, but has only used the title of chairman of Beijing Zhaodu to go around.
On Dec. 17, 2014, Li Botan was elected as an independent director of Guizhou Maotai. Guizhou Maotai is one of the listed subsidiaries of the Maotai Group.
Soon after, the authorities launched an “anti-corruption storm” against the Maotai Group, with at least a dozen executives of the group being investigated so far. Among them are Yuan Renguo, one of the founders of the Maotai Association, and Liu Zili, vice chairman and general manager of Guizhou Maotai Brewery, who served as vice chairman of the Maotai Association.
On December 17, 2020, Li Botan resigned from his position as an independent director of Guizhou Maotai.
In 2019, Taiwanese scholar Wu Jialong said in an interview that since the outbreak of the “anti-Sino” movement in Hong Kong, the Communist Party’s Jiang faction power elites have moved their funds to Cambodia and Singapore.
Wu Jialong disclosed that “Jia Qinglin, the former chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, hired a private plane with Gold, U.S. dollars, euros, etc., and flew it to Cambodia, as a Taiwanese businessman told me.”
In February, the Financial Times reported that Communist authorities were studying the ongoing tightening of anti-money laundering measures in Hong Kong. The current anti-money laundering measures in Hong Kong have been expanded from the current targeting of overseas persons only to include people including mainland officials.
In addition, a number of Jia Qinglin’s close associates are in trouble.
Huang Ruyun, chairman of Century Jinyuan Group, who is alleged to be one of Jia Qinglin’s family moneybags, was revoked as a member of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in June 2017 for allegedly offering bribes.
(Screenshot from Century Jinyuan Group’s official website)
An overseas media source quoted an informed source in Beijing as saying, “The outside world thinks that Jinyuan Group’s surname is Huang, which is legally correct, but in reality, Huang Ruyun is just a pawn, a specific operator for the Jia family. The actual principal is Li Botan, Jia Qinglin’s son-in-law.”
On March 2, 2017, Jia Qinglin’s “deputy secretary,” Sun Huai-shan, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and former director of the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee, fell from grace and was sentenced to 14 years in prison in September 2018.
Sun was the deputy secretary general of the CPPCC for 17 years, 10 of which were spent working under former CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin…
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