Heads Roll as China’s Financial Clampdown Continues
The widening of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive is shaking industry and investor confidence.
Li Yunze, director of National Administration of Financial Regulation, speaks during the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, China, June 8, 2023. Credit: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
For the 300 or so Wall Street bosses packed into the grand ballroom at Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel this week, the message from China couldn’t have been more welcoming.
Addressing the room via a pre-recorded video link, Vice Premier He Lifeng, the country’s newly-minted economics czar stressed “China’s charm and Hong Kong’s charisma.” With the Chinese economy on track to meet its growth target this year, he urged the guests to “speak freely” and find solutions to global challenges.
Yet if the choice of venue for the conference — where Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua was abducted by Chinese police in 2017 — were not jarring enough, the 68-year old He’s words certainly were.
His sanguine tone stands in contrast with the stern message Beijing is delivering to bankers back home, where an ongoing clampdown has ensnared dozens of top finance officials and high-profile bank executives this year alone. This spread of Xi Jinping’s years-long
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