On this episode of China Uncensored,
a bribery trial of a Chinese national
shows that China's Belt and Road deals
can be pretty shady.
Hi, welcome back to China Uncensored.
I'm your host, Chris Chappell.
Dr. Patrick Ho: Former Hong Kong Secretary for Home Affairs.
With a smile fit for a king...
pin
He's a big name in China.
Here he is with film star Jackie Chan
at some weird art show in 2004.
Supposedly, they're holding their hands up in a universal sign
of peace, love, and international understanding.
Or, maybe they were planning on making a sequel
to my favorite kung fu flick,
Dirty Ho.
But Dr. Ho left Hong Kong politics in 2007.
He eventually became a global pitchman
for a Chinese energy company that's key
to the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road Initiative.
That is,
the Party's scheme for global domination.
Dr. Ho got another chance to put his hands in the air
last year in November,
when New York police arrested him on charges of
bribing African government officials
through US financial institutions.
The 69-year-old dealmaker is accused of using a
US-based think tank with links to the United Nations
to funnel 2.9 million dollars
worth of bribes to senior officials in Africa.
They were billed as "donations."
But if these "donations" were in fact bribes
to foreign officials,
they would violate the American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
because his think tank is registered in the US.
Around the time of his arrest,
acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim said
"In an international corruption scheme
that spanned the globe...
Patrick Ho and Cheikh Gadio allegedly conspired
to bribe African government officials
on behalf of a Chinese energy conglomerate."
Cheikh Gadio is the former foreign minister of Senegal.
He's was allegedly Dr. Ho's co-conspirator.
I say "was", because he's made a deal with prosecutors,
and is testifying against Dr. Ho in exchange for
getting the charges against himself dropped.
I mean, is there no honor among thieves anymore?
What's the world coming to?
The Chinese Communist Party even has a new term
for betraying your partners out of self-interest.
They call it win-win mutual cooperation.
So Dr. Ho could end up in US prison
for up to 20 years if the jury finds him guilty.
He's been held for the past year
without bail and his trial begins this week.
Prosecutors say Dr. Ho used a US-based think tank
funded by CEFC China Energy,
and leveraged his connections at the UN
to funnel 2 million dollars to the president of Chad.
Prosecutors also say he gave half a million dollars
to the foreign minister of Uganda.
Both of the, um "charitable contributions",
were in exchange for "valuable oil rights" for CEFC.
CEFC is a company from Shanghai,
led by a guy with ties to the People's Liberation Army
and Chinese military intelligence.
CEFC has invested about $20 billion in
Belt and Road Initiative projects, largely to acquire oil.
The Belt and Road is China's trillion-dollar plan
to build trade corridors across the world.
So... a mysterious think tank
secretly has ties to military intelligence
and carries out operations around the world.
It sounds like Patrick Ho is just a 300-pound evil MacGyver.
But instead of using duct tape and a Swiss Army Knife
to solve problems for the Phoenix Foundation,
MacGyver's "think tank,"
Dr. Ho just used his think tank to
give the bad guys lots of money.
Allegedly.
But regardless of whether the jury finds Dr. Ho guilty,
this whole affair is reflecting really, really badly
on China's Belt and Road Initiative.
The Communist Party says the Belt and Road
is all about helping the developing world.
They've been using it to position China as globalization's BFF.
Dr. Ho has been one of its biggest promoters.
Since 2013, he's hosted annual
"China Story" forums at the United Nations.
Last year, he coined the concept of Belt and Road
as "globalization 2.0,"
a buzzword quickly adopted by Chinese state-run media
that went viral.
Globalization 1.0 was the colonization and multi-nationalization
led by Western nations.
But version 2.0, led by the world's biggest authoritarian regime,
is definitely going to be much better.
Sadly, Dr. Ho's trial threatens to expose some of the
bugs in "globalization 2.0."
And it comes at a time when the Trump administration
is already calling out China for bad behavior in global commerce,
tightening scrutiny over Chinese investments,
and prosecuting economic espionage.
Robert Precht, a U.S. criminal law expert,
told the Wall Street Journal that
"One of the goals of the Patrick Ho prosecution
is to put a spotlight on China's use of foreign bribery
to win contracts for Belt and Road."
And since Dr. Ho's fall from grace,
the fortunes of CEFC Energy Company
—which funded his think tank—
have also taken a tumble.
Earlier this year,
Chinese authorities arrested the head of CEFC,
Ye Jianming,
wiping out 153 million dollars in stock value in the process.
While no formal charges have been announced for Mr. Ye,
he was named in a Chinese court case
last month as a bribe-giver
during the conviction of a provincial governor for corruption.
And he's got something to worry about,
because unlike in America, where a bribery conviction
might land you in an orange jumpsuit for a few decades,
in China,
Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign is deadly business.
Just look at former deputy mayor of Lüliang,
who according to Chinese state-run media
"did not restrain himself" and
"crazily took bribes" to the tune of a 160 million dollars.
As punishment
they took away his black hair dye before the trial.
And then executed him immediately.
So actually Dr. Ho should thank his lucky stars
he's facing trial in the US
where at worst, he'll end up behind bars
and be forced to make some interesting new friends.
So what do you think about Dr. Ho's trial?
Leave your comments below.
And before you go,
it's time for me to answer a question from one of you
who supports China Uncensored through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
Ted Canguy asks:
"Will hyperinflation happen in China
due to over-spending in construction?
Will China become like Venezuela
where people are starving and can't afford food?"
Good question, Ted.
It's possible hyperinflation could happen in China,
but it's not likely to happen just because of
overspending in construction.
Hyperinflation is where prices rise so quickly,
that the cost of everyday items grows literally every day.
In Venezuela, prices have risen so fast
that stores started weighing money
instead of wasting time counting it.
To simplify things a lot,
hyperinflation tends to happen when consumers and businesses
massively lose confidence in the currency,
and then the government is forced to print extra money
to cover expenses, which just causes more inflation.
In China, however,
the government has massive foreign currency reserves,
including 3 trillion worth of US dollars.
Foreign reserves can help China stabilize its currency.
Not to say that China doesn't have economic problems
—caused, for example,
by building too many bridges,
or too many apartments that average workers can't afford.
Or problems resulting by US trade tariffs
that hurt Chinese manufacturing.
That being said,
China's economic problems won't necessarily
lead to hyperinflation.
It's possible,
but not that likely.
The problems might just cause people
to lose confidence in the ruling regime.
Thanks for your question, Ted.
And for everyone else,
do you want me to keep making episodes of China Uncensored?
Please support to our continued growth
by pledging a dollar or more per episode
by going to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored.
Or pledge two dollars per episode,
because you never know when inflation's going to kick in.
Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.
Thanks for watching China Uncensored.
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