“There’s always some kind of backdoor dealings,” said Huang Jing, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore, adding that he wasn’t commenting on Liu in particular. “There must be something that cannot be put in the sunlight.”
Such as the events surrounding the 1997 assassination attempt.
Yuan Baojing, once worth 3 billion yuan, was put to death in 2006 along with his brother and cousin for the murder of a man who threatened to expose their attempt to kill Liu, state- run Xinhua News Agency reported at the time. Yuan was said to blame Liu for losses on investments, Xinhua said.
Yuan’s Tibetan wife, Zhuoma, alleged the trial was rigged. Her husband was rich, had lost money on business dealings before, so why would he risk his life by murdering a businessman he had never met, she told the state-run Beijing Times.
Murder Probe
Now the tables may have turned for Liu. A March 22 Xinhua report posted on the website of China’s Ministry of Public Security named a suspect in the 2009 triple murder as Liu Yong and said his brother, Liu Han, was being investigated for harboring him. A man named Liu Yong incited gunmen to kill three people at an outdoor teahouse in Deyang, Sichuan, the agency reported at the time.
The latest article said Liu Yong was from Guanghan, which Liu Han said was his home town in a 2008 Hong Kong filing.
A woman in the president’s office of Sichuan Jinlu, who would only give her surname as Long, said the man being investigated was the company’s chairman. That confirmed reports in state media including the Communist Party-owned Global Times.
It’s not uncommon for businessmen to be detained without charge and with no public acknowledgment from authorities.
Bo Fallout