Hong Kong’s exclusive homes

Top leaders of China’s Communist Party have relatives who own assets in Hong Kong;

HONG KONG — Li Qianxin, the elder daughter of the Chinese Communist Party’s No. 3 leader, has quietly crafted a life in Hong Kong that traverses the city’s financial elite and the secretive world of Chinese politics.
 

For years, she has mingled with senior executives of state companies through Hong Kong and mainland professional clubs known for grooming the sons and daughters of officials. She has represented Hong Kong in Chinese provincial political advisory groups. She is the chairwoman of a state-owned investment bank based in Hong Kong that has long done business with the relatives of top Chinese officials.
 

Ms. Li, 38, also has deep financial roots in the city, having bought a $15 million, four-story townhouse perched high above a beach. Her partner owns a now-retired racehorse and spent hundreds of millions on a stake in the storied Peninsula Hotel that he later sold.
 

Ms. Li and other members of the Communist nobility are embedded in the fabric of Hong Kong’s society and financial system, binding the former British colony closer to the mainland. By building alliances and putting their money into Hong Kong’s real estate, China’s top leaders have inextricably linked themselves to the fate of the city.

As the party now takes a stronger hand in running Hong Kong, the top leadership in Beijing has a vested interest, politically and personally. Ms. Li’s father, Li Zhanshu, oversaw the swift passage of the new national security law for Hong Kong that handed the party a powerful new weapon to quash dissent.

 

The law could protect the families of the party’s leaders by stopping the protests that wreaked havoc on the economy, or leave them vulnerable by driving down business confidence in the territory. It could also expose them to sanctions.

Already the law has prompted rebukes from foreign countries that could threaten Hong Kong’s access to the global financial system. The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Friday on Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior officials in the city and the mainland they accuse of curtailing freedoms in Hong Kong.
 

“Members of the Red aristocracy in China, including the princelings, have made huge investments in Hong Kong,” said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor of China studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “If Hong Kong suddenly loses its financial status, they cannot park their money here.”

One of the leadership’s biggest exposures to Hong Kong is in real estate. Including Ms. Li, relatives of three of the top four members of China’s Communist Party have in recent years bought luxury homes in Hong Kong worth more than $51 million combined, a New York Times investigation shows.

Qi Qiaoqiao, the older sister of Xi Jinping, China’s president, started buying properties in Hong Kong as early as 1991, Hong Kong property records show. Her daughter, Zhang Yannan, owns a villa in Repulse Bay, which she bought in 2009 for $19.3 million, and at least five other apartments, the city’s property and company records indicate.
 

Wang Xisha, a former Deutsche Bank executive who is the daughter of Wang Yang, the No. 4 party leader, bought a $2 million home in Hong Kong in 2010, according to city property records.

The Communist Party has long been secretive about the riches of many of its leaders’ relatives, aware that such an accumulation of wealth could be seen as the elite abusing their privilege for personal gain. In Hong Kong, the party is also mindful that the presence of princelings could further fan resentment of Beijing.
 

Ms. Li, like many relatives of top Chinese officials, keeps a low profile.

In the mainland, there are few mentions of Mr. Li’s family in the party-controlled news media, and searches for his daughter’s name on social media sites yield minimal results. A trip to Nangoucun, his ancestral village in northern Hebei Province, offered little insight about his children.
 

But internal documents from Deutsche Bank obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and reviewed by The New York Times late last year referred to a woman with the same name in English and Chinese as the elder daughter of Li Zhanshu, now the No. 3 leader in China. Those documents were part of an internal inquiry stemming from an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the bank’s politically connected hires.

The Hong Kong identity number that is used by Ms. Li in a Hong Kong corporate record listing the directors of China Construction Bank International is the same one used in the records linked to the beachfront property and a company she owns with her partner;

 

A well-connected businessman and an associate have confirmed that the Ms. Li who is an executive at China Construction Bank International is the daughter of Li Zhanshu, as does a biography of the official written by Cheng Li, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution.
 

The rest of her résumé can be pieced together through news snippets and archived web pages. They showed how Ms. Li has strengthened her ties to the city in ways that position her well for a political career in the mainland.
 

She joined networks like the Hua Jing Society in Hong Kong that provide a forum for princelings to meet the children of Hong Kong’s tycoons and political class.
 

In 2013, she and other Hong Kong representatives of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, or C.P.P.C.C., a party-run political advisory group, helped organize relief funds for a village. Two years later, she visited farmers and carried toddlers in the same province to promote the United Front Work Department, a party unit that develops overseas political networks.
 

Ms. Li is now the chairwoman of China Construction Bank International, the investment arm of a major state lender, according to corporate records in Beijing. Ms. Li, her partner and the bank have not responded to multiple requests for comment from The Times.
 

“There is often an assumption that simply being well connected is enough to get ahead in Chinese politics,” said Rana Mitter, a professor of Chinese history and politics at Oxford University, who did not comment specifically about Ms. Li. “Actually, there is still a great deal of interest in candidates proving themselves for higher office in institutions such as the Communist Youth League and the C.P.P.C.C.”

Like many other members of China’s Communist elite, she has amassed significant wealth, according to a review of company and property documents filed in Hong Kong. Ms. Li also took advantage of a tax haven popular with the world’s elite.

She bought the waterfront townhouse overlooking Stanley Beach through Century Joy Holdings Ltd., a company registered in Hong Kong and incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, for $15 million in 2013, according to a document filed with the city’s land registry.
 

Ms. Li, then 30, was the Hong Kong entity’s sole director. That entity was dissolved in October, hours after The Times contacted Ms. Li for comment ahead of the publication of the article about Deutsche Bank’s hires in China.
 

Her partner, a 35-year-old Chinese-born Singaporean businessman, Chua Hwa Por, has used a similar strategy.

He was named as the sole beneficiary of a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands, according to the Panama Papers, a 2016 leak of confidential documents that exposed how prominent business leaders and politicians might have used shell companies and offshore bank accounts to evade taxes. Mr. Chua uses a variety of addresses and several identification numbers, but he can be tied to Ms. Li, the properties and the companies through his Singaporean identity number.
 

The nature of Ms. Li’s relationship with Mr. Chua is unclear, but they own a company together and have used the same home addresses in documents they have filed with Hong Kong’s property and company registries. Hong Kong news reports have speculated that the couple were married.

In status-conscious Hong Kong, Mr. Chua was not modest about his wealth. At 31, he owned a racehorse named Limitless and posed for photos with a bottle of wine at the Hong Kong Jockey Club after it won a race in 2017.

That year, he also started to make a number of major purchases, according to filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He took over Tai United, a little-known investment company listed in Hong Kong, using it to buy trophy assets including a large stake in the Peninsula Hotel and the 79th floor of an iconic skyscraper.
 

In July 2017, barely five months after he was appointed chairman of Tai United, Mr. Chua resigned from the company. He stepped down shortly after Next Magazine, a Hong Kong news outlet owned by the pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai, reported on the purchases and his possible ties to Mr. Li, the senior Chinese official. (The publisher, Mr. Lai, was arrested this week, accused of national security and other offenses.)

 

Mr. Li, the official, was at the time poised for a promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of party power, and even the whiff of corruption in his family would have been potentially damaging. In January the next year, Mr. Chua sold the bulk of his stake in Tai United.
 

Without public disclosure of the wealth of officials and their relatives, it is impossible to know how Mr. Chua and Ms. Li obtained their income. There are legitimate reasons for people to own companies offshore, and it is also not illegal for Chinese citizens to do so.
 

Shirley Yam, a prominent financial writer in Hong Kong, also raised questions about the couple’s financial dealings in a 2017 column in The South China Morning Post, a local newspaper owned by Jack Ma, one of China’s richest tech tycoons.

The newspaper later pulled the column from its website, citing “multiple unverifiable insinuations.” Ms. Yam resigned, and defended her column in a statement.

But if there was fallout from the disclosure, Mr. Li most likely emerged unscathed; in October 2017, he was elevated to the party’s powerful standing committee.
 

Since then, Mr. Chua has largely shied away from the public eye. But he and Ms. Li remain joint owners of a company called Chua & Li Membership. In annual filings with the government, both had listed the $15 million beach house as their residence until earlier this year, when Ms. Li changed her address to an apartment owned by Mr. Chua on the 60th floor of an exclusive property.
 

Ms. Li made a rare public appearance in April 2019, attending an event that now seems to have foreshadowed Hong Kong’s current fate.
 

She applauded alongside the Hong Kong leader, Mrs. Lam, at the opening of a government-backed exhibition promoting national security for Hong Kong, a promotional video for the event showed. Other special guests included the deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army in Hong Kong and the directors of the highest offices representing mainland authorities in Hong Kong.
 

Shields and bulletproof vests hung on walls as members of the Hong Kong Army Cadets Association — a youth group supported by the government and the People’s Liberation Army — were taken on a tour of the exhibition.
 

Fourteen months later, Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong.

 

Three top leaders of China’s Communist Party have relatives who own assets in Hong Kong, including more than $51 million in luxury real estate, a New York Times investigation shows.
New York Times )

 

香港作為中國共產黨, 第三號領導人物的長女，栗潛心在香港悄悄打造出一種橫跨這座城市金融精英和中國政治隱秘世界的生活。
 

多年來，透過以給官員子女鋪路著稱的香港和大陸職場人士俱樂部，她與國企高管們談笑風生。她是中國的省級政治顧問團體的香港代表。她還是一家總部位於香港的國有投資銀行的主席，該銀行長期以來一直與中國高層官員的親屬做生意。
 

栗潛心現年38歲，在這座城市也有著深厚的財力基礎，購買了一幢價值1500萬美元的四層海景聯排別墅。她的伴侶擁有一匹現已退役的賽馬，並斥資數億入股赫赫有名的半島酒店，後來已將股份出售。

 

栗潛心及其他共產黨權貴與香港社會和金融體系密不可分，他們將這個前英國殖民地更緊密地與大陸聯繫了起來。通過建立盟友，將自己的資金投入香港房地產，中國的高層領導人已經將自己的命運與這座城市牢牢捆綁在一起。
 

隨著中國共產黨在管理香港方面採取更為強硬的立場，北京高層在政治和個人方面都有著既得利益。栗潛心的父親栗戰書負責新的港區國家安全法的迅速通過，這部法律為中國共產黨壓制異見提供了一個強大的新武器。
 

通過阻止抗議活動，該法可以保護中共領導人的親屬。抗議活動對經濟造成了嚴重破壞，拉低外界對這個地區的商業信心，讓這群人的處境岌岌可危，或者讓他們受到制裁。
 

新國安法已經引發了來自外國的指責，可能對香港進入全球金融市場的途徑構成威脅。川普政府上週五對香港行政長官林鄭月娥以及其他10名香港和大陸的高級官員實施制裁，指責這些人限制了香港的自由。
 

「中國紅色貴族的成員包括那些已經在香港做出巨額投資的『太子黨』，」香港中文大學中國研究兼職教授林和立說。「如果香港突然失去其金融地位，他們就不能把錢放在這裡了。」
 

中共領導層在香港的主要敞口之一是房地產。一項《紐約時報》調查顯示，包括栗潛心在內，中共四位高層領導人中的三位有親屬近年在香港購買了奢華住宅，共計價值超過5100萬美元。

習近平外甥女張燕南名下位於香港淺水灣的別墅。 Eric Rechsteiner for The New York Times

香港物業記錄顯示，早在1991年，中國國家主席習近平的姐姐齊橋橋就開始在香港購買房地產。香港產業和公司記錄顯示，她的女兒張燕南擁有淺水灣的一座別墅，於2009年以1930萬美元購得。此外，張燕南還擁有至少五間公寓。
 

據香港物業記錄顯示，前德意志銀行高管、中共第四號人物汪洋的女兒汪溪沙於2010年在香港購買了一處200萬美元的住宅。

 

對於許多領導人的親屬異常富有這件事，共產黨長期以來一直諱莫如深，他們明白這種財富積累可能會被視為權貴階層濫用特權，謀取個人利益。在香港，「太子黨」的存在可能會進一步煽起對北京的憎惡這一點，中共也十分注意。
 

與許多高層中國官員的親屬一樣，栗潛心行事低調。
 

在大陸，由中共控制的新聞媒體鮮少提及栗戰書的家庭，並且社群媒體網站上對其女的搜索結果寥寥。探訪栗戰書位於河北省南溝庄的故鄉，也沒有得到多少關於其子女的信息。

但德國《南德意志報》得到的德意志銀行內部文件（《紐約時報》在去年年底查閱了該文件）提到了一位與中國的三號領導人栗戰書長女的中英文姓名一樣的女性。這些文件是證交會對該行有政治背景的員工所做的內部調查的一部分。
 

在一份列出了建銀國際(China Construction Bank International)董事的香港公司記錄中，栗潛心使用的香港身份證號碼，與這處濱海房產以及她跟合伙人共同擁有的一家公司的相關記錄中所使用的號碼相同。

 

一位人脈深厚的商人和一名與她有往來的人士證實，建銀國際栗姓高管就是栗戰書的女兒，由布魯金斯學會(Brookings Institution)研究中國政治精英的專家李成撰寫的一篇栗戰書生平簡介也這麼認為。

 

她的簡歷的其他部分，可以通過新聞片段和存檔的網頁拼湊起來。從中可以看到栗潛心如何加強與這座城市的聯繫，從而為自己在內地的政治生涯奠定良好的基礎。

她加入了香港華菁會等團體，這些機構為中共太子黨與香港富豪和政治階層的子女提供了接觸的平台。
 

2013年，她和中國人民政治協商會議的其他香港代表為一個村莊籌集救災資金。兩年後，她到該省探訪農民，還抱起年幼的孩童，為統戰部做宣傳。該部是中共從事海外政治人脈發展的機構。
 

根據在北京查到的企業記錄，栗潛心現為建銀國際董事長，該公司是中國一家大型國有銀行旗下的投行。她和她的合伙人以及銀行方面都沒有回應《紐約時報》多次發出的置評請求。

「大家往往認為，只要有深厚的人脈，就足以在中國政壇取得成功，」牛津大學的中國歷史和政治教授拉納·米特(Rana Mitter)說。「其實，還是有很多人有意在共青團和政協這樣的機構證明自己，以謀求更高職位。」
 

通過對提交給香港有關部門的公司和財產文件所做的評估發現，與中共精英的許多其他成員一樣，她也積累了大量財富。栗潛心還在利用一個深受世界精英歡迎的避稅天堂。

赤柱正灘。2013年，一位中國共產黨領導人的女兒栗潛心就是在這裡以1500萬美元買下一幢聯排別墅。 Marcel Lam for The New York Times

提交給香港土地註冊處的一份文件顯示，2013年，她通過在香港註冊、在英屬維爾京群島成立的世喜控股有限公司(Century Joy Holdings Ltd.)，以1500萬美元的價格買下了這棟俯瞰赤柱灘的海濱聯排別墅。
 

當時30歲的栗潛心是該香港實體的唯一董事。去年10月《紐約時報》在有關德意志銀行在華招聘員工的文章發表前聯繫栗潛心置評，這家公司在幾小時後解散。

link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/business/china-hong-kong-elite.html

By Alexandra Stevenson and Michael Forsythe