How Alvin Chau's Suncity empire touched casinos from Vladivostok to Melbourne, and what his downfall signifies for China, casinos and Macau.
Macau’s junket king has fallen. Late last month, police in the gambling enclave arrested Suncity boss Alvin Chau, whose company has for years led the market in funneling high-rolling Chinese gamblers to VIP suites across the region, for alleged links to illegal cross-border gambling. A day earlier, authorities in Wenzhou, China, accused him of “severe damage to the social order of the country” and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Junket operators like Suncity are more than just high-end
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
For much of the past two decades, Europe's luxury market has counted on the ferocious appetite of Chinese consumers to bolster its bottom line. But foreign luxury brands are facing a reckoning in China. Not only is China’s economy entering a more uncertain phase, giving consumers pause, but homegrown designers and labels are also gaining ground. The questions now are which European brands can still rely on China, and how China's domestic designers can capture a share of the pie.
The Treasury’s top international official gives an inside-the-room account of the latest talks between Treasury Secretary Yellen and the Chinese leadership, including the U.S.’s efforts to get Beijing to address overcapacity and economic imbalances, how...
A podcast about how the two nations, once friends, are now foes.
Hear why things are so complicated now. Host Jane Perlez, former New York Times Beijing bureau chief, talks with diplomats, spies, cultural superstars like Yo Yo Ma, and more to understand why the dangers are so high, and why relations went awry.