After just ten days of the official announcement of the downfall of Ma Xingrui, a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and former Secretary of Xinjiang, the CCP authorities arranged for an open court trial of Xu Jiayin, the founder of Evergrande Group. Shen Mingshi, a researcher at the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, pointed out that the timing is intriguing, and it cannot be ruled out that there may be a broader political and business relationship network behind these two cases.
According to the official WeChat account of the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on April 14, on April 13 and 14, the court publicly tried Xu Jiayin, the founder of Evergrande Group, on charges including illegal absorption of public deposits, fundraising fraud, embezzlement, and bribery. Xu Jiayin pleaded guilty in court.
On April 3, just ten days earlier, Xinhua News Agency reported that Ma Xingrui, a member of the Central Politburo and Deputy Head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and is currently subject to disciplinary inspection and supervision by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission.
Shen Mingshi pointed out that the timing of Xu Jiayin’s open trial less than two weeks after Ma Xingrui’s downfall is attention-grabbing. He believes that the progress of Xu Jiayin’s case may be connected to the investigation of Ma Xingrui.
During a recent appearance on NTD’s “Current Affairs Crossroads” program, Shen Mingshi provided the above analysis. He has long been engaged in research on military strategy, the military of the Chinese Communist Party, and regional security.
He outlined the process of handling major cases by the CCP in the program. He said that before entering the public trial process, the CCP usually goes through multiple rounds of internal discussions, reaching agreements with the involved parties on how to convict them in exchange for implicating other parties. If the involved parties refuse to confess, the investigation and trial of the case can be prolonged.
He believes that Xu Jiayin’s on-the-spot confession is likely a predetermined outcome agreed upon with the CCP authorities before the trial, and there may have been some transactions between them.
Shen Mingshi specifically pointed out that among the charges leveled against Xu Jiayin by the CCP, there is one notable charge of “unit bribery.” According to the CCP’s criminal law, the crime of unit bribery refers to units bribing to seek undue benefits or giving kickbacks or fees to state employees in violation of national regulations, with severe circumstances. The rapid expansion of Evergrande and the peak of Xu Jiayin’s personal career development coincided with Ma Xingrui’s tenure in Shenzhen, leading to speculation.
Ma Xingrui served as the Secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee from 2015 to 2016, coinciding with Evergrande’s expansion in Guangdong and Shenzhen during the same period. Xu Jiayin ascended to China’s richest man in 2017, and Evergrande’s market value and sales also reached historical highs during this period.
Shen Mingshi believes that Ma Xingrui’s previous positions in a state-owned military enterprise and later as the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicate that he was once deliberately cultivated by the CCP’s senior leadership. During Ma Xingrui’s tenure in Shenzhen, Xu Jiayin happened to be engaged in banking business, hence likely exploiting convenient conditions to provide benefits to local officials like Ma Xingrui.
Ma Xingrui previously served as the leader in Xinjiang before falling from grace, leading to speculation on whether his downfall is related to misconduct during his time in Xinjiang. However, Shen Mingshi dismissed this speculation. He believes that if there were misconduct in Xinjiang, Ma Xingrui would not have been transferred back to the party central and even have the opportunity to become the Deputy Head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group of the CCP.
As for Xu Jiayin, a former prominent figure in China’s real estate industry who once became China’s richest man, he has now fallen into the clutches of the CCP. Hu Liren, who previously served as the Vice President of Li Ka-shing’s company in Shanghai, stated that under the CCP system, Xu Jiayin’s experience is not uncommon.
Hu Liren expressed to NTD that Chinese entrepreneurs like Xu Jiayin often amass significant resources in a short period, but behind them are bound to be numerous powerful families. Therefore, while Evergrande is ostensibly a private enterprise, in reality, it can be considered a CCP family business, with Xu Jiayin acting as a puppet for the CCP’s elites.
Hu Liren believes that many of the so-called “tycoons” who once wielded great influence in China have been investigated in recent years, as they are repaying the debts they owe to the CCP regime.
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