
Top Chinese business executives face an occupational hazard few of their peers in other countries face: sudden, and usually involuntary, disappearances.
The latest to apparently suffer this fate is prominent investment banker Bao Fan. China Renaissance Holdings, the firm he founded, last week disclosed it was currently “unable to contact” Bao. On Sunday, Feb. 26, however, in a late night filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, China Renaissance said that it learned that Bao was “cooperating in an investigation being carried out by certain authorities” in mainland China.
The Chinese government, though, has neither charged him with a crime nor publicly acknowledged his disappearance. The authorities, however, are investigating Bao’s colleague Cong Lin, a former president of China Renaissance, according to Caixin. He has not been heard from since the authorities detained him last September.

“You have a very able and respected banker who was just disappeared by the Chinese state,” says Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London, referring to Bao Fan. “Officially, we don’t know why he has been disappeared, what he’s been arrested for, and what he’s been charged with.”
Bao is the latest senior Chinese executive among dozens in recent years to have mysteriously vanished from the public eye amid government scrutiny — either by choice or by force.
“Every person in a business of a certain size knows someone who has disappeared in recent years,” says Desmond Shum, the businessman and author of Red Roulette, and the ex-husband of Whitney Duan,1AKA Duan Weihong a wealthy, politically-connected businesswoman who went missing in 2017. “The fear [of being disappeared] is very pervasive.”
This week, The Wire looks at a few of the cases: examining what the disappearances reveal about government priorities, the impact on the business sector, and how sudden disappearances may conflict with a China re-opening to the world.

FINANCE
Executives had been disappearing in China before Chinese President Xi Jinping first took power in 2012. The state-backed China Daily reported in 2011 that 72 billionaires died of unnatural causes between 2003 and 2011, including 14 that were executed by the state. But business executives began to grow more fearful as disappearances became more frequent under Xi, says Shum.
Shortly after taking power, Xi launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that ensnared tens of thousands of government officials up and down the ranks of the party on corruption charges — a campaign that had the added benefit of purging Xi’s political rivals. In the mid-2010’s, Xi’s campaign broadened beyond government ranks to include non-party members and the private sector.
We used to have colorful figures in the business community. They liked to talk, they liked the spotlight. But you don’t see that anymore.
Desmond Shum, author of Red Roulette and ex-husband of Whitney Duan
A stock market crash in 2015 spurred China’s government to focus on perceived excesses in the financial sector. Xu Xiang, an investment banker known as China’s Carl Icahn, was one of the central figures China detained that year for insider trading after he allegedly profited from the stock market crash. The crackdown on financial executives picked up pace in 2017 with the disappearance of Xiao Jianhua, the billionaire owner of the Tomorrow Group financial empire, who was apparently kidnapped from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong and whisked across the border, into the hands of the Chinese authorities.
TECH
On Oct. 24, 2020, Jack Ma, founder of tech giant Alibaba, delivered his now infamous ‘Bund speech’ in which he criticized the outdated mentality of government regulators. Following Ma’s speech,2See Lingling Wei’s articles about Jack Ma’s fall in The Wall Street Journal, here. Chinese regulators suspended the IPO of Ant Group, an Alibaba fintech-affiliate that was set to make the world’s largest-ever debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange the following month. The suspension marked the start of a harsh government crackdown on China’s tech sector that reduced the power of China’s largest tech companies and wiped over $1 trillion from their valuations.

The once outspoken and freewheeling Ma did not appear again for three months after his speech, and has since only seldom been seen aboard his yacht or at charity events, or living in Japan. Other powerful executives have followed Ma’s lead and gone quiet as China’s government brandished its regulatory might. CEOs of big tech firms, including Kuaishou’s Su Hua, JD.com’s Richard Liu, Dada Nexus’ Kuai Jiaqi, and Pinduoduo’s Colin Huang are among the Chinese executives who have decided to step down from their positions and quietly fade from the limelight after Beijing launched its tech crackdown. “We used to have colorful figures in the business community. They liked to talk. They liked the spotlight. But you don’t see that anymore,” Shum says.
CHARM OFFENSIVE?
Unlike previous eras, Bao’s disappearance does not appear to neatly fall in line with broader government aims. After years of being closed off to the world, this year China’s government has dropped nearly all COVID controls, loosened its reins on the economy and the tech crackdown and warmed up to foreign executives interested in doing business in China. “Foreign investments are welcome in China, and the door to China will only open up further,” China’s vice-premier, Liu He, said at the World Economic Forum at Davos in January.
Beijing is in the midst of a charm offensive (with foreign business) but (disappearing Bao Fan) is just about as uncharming as you can get.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute
Bao’s disappearance appears to directly undermine Beijing’s desire to welcome new business and re-open its economy. “Beijing is in the midst of a charm offensive (with foreign business) but (disappearing Bao Fan) is just about as uncharming as you can get,” says Tsang, from the University of London.
For now, it’s unclear whether Bao’s disappearance is part of a broader crackdown. But other financial executives in China may lie low for the foreseeable future. “Bao Fan is not a cowboy in the Wild West, you know, running amok. That’s why his disappearance is so shocking to the investment industry, to the technology industry,” Shum says. “Is China’s government targeting an individual or are they targeting an industry segment? That is the question.”

Grady McGregor is a staff writer for The Wire China based in Washington, D.C. He was previously a staff writer at Fortune Magazine in Hong Kong, writing features on business, tech, and all things related to China. Before that, he had stints as a journalist and editor in Jordan, Lebanon, and North Dakota.