China has repeatedly accused Western “Black Hands,” the U.S. and U.K. in particular, of being the financial backers and provocateurs of the violent street protests in Hong Kong, in what first started as protests against the government’s now withdrawn extradition law – that have now turned into protests demanding democracy.
America has been blamed for being the instigator of the violence without any supporting evidence, other than pointing the finger at the meetings Hong Kong democratic activists have had with U.S. government officials in Washington D.C., that resulted in Congress passing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, and peaceful protestors waiving the American flag.
When news broke a couple weeks ago that China had arrested back in November 2019, and was prosecuting, a foreigner for “providing a large amount of funds to hostile elements in the United States, colluding with foreign anti-China forces to intervene in Hong Kong affairs, and funding the implementation of criminal activities that endangered [China’s] national security,” I, like many China hands in Hong Kong, were curious who this foreign Black Hand is.
It turns out he is a Mainland Chinese businessman with a Belizean passport, thus making him a “foreigner.”
Lee Henley Hu Xiang, is also “a partner, first vice president, shareholder and chief representative” of Eastern American, a U.S. company that has been doing business in China for more than three decades.
It turns out Lee was a close business associate of Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing party chief and a former member of the Politburo, the Communist Party decision making body – and also challenger to Xi Jinping’s rise to power – that resulted in Bo’s arrest in 2012, and sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption, bribery and abuse of power.
Lee was a key witness in Bo’s conviction, testifying that he and Eastern American had been involved in a sophisticated US$3 million transaction to buy a villa on the French Riviera for Bo’s wife Gu Kailai, to cover Bo’s involvement.
Gu was found guilty of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, a business consultant who facilitated Bo and Gu’s foreign transactions, when he threatened to go to the authorities unless he was paid more for his consulting services.
In other words, Lee who worked with and assisted Bo, a Chinese Communist Party official who was opposed to and challenged Xi Jinping for the top post in the Communist Party and presidency of China, has now been arrested and charged with providing “large sums of money to anti-China forces to wreck Hong Kong,” without any supporting details – but in reality, to undermine Xi Jinping’s power and authority in the Communist Party, in the footsteps of Bo and those opposed to Xi Jinping’s politics and economic policies.
Is there more to the violent street protest in Hong Kong than just democracy?
Is a Communist Party power struggle taking place that is playing out on the streets of Hong Kong?
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Illustration: Mark Caparosa
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