The Canadian embassy in Beijing confirmed Monday that Xiao’s trial began this week. “Canadian consular officials are following this case closely, providing consular services to his family and continuing to push for consular access,” it said in a statement, without specifying the location of the trial or the charges against him. Until 2017, Xiao, 50, was one of mainland China’s richest businessmen with high-level connections in the ruling Communist Party. A student leader in 1989 at the prestigious Peking University, Xiao sided with the government during student protests and later found wealth during the country’s economic boom. Xiao made a fortune selling personal computers after graduating. By 2016, according to research group Hurun Report, it was worth $6bn (£4.94bn), with investments in banks and insurance through a myriad of complex structures. Chinese news reported that Xiao had, over the years, worked on behalf of some of China’s elite families. A reclusive but respected figure in the country’s investor circles, Xiao’s fortunes were upended in January 2017 when he was kicked out of Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel in a wheelchair, allegedly by Chinese security agents, who were then not allowed to . to do business in Hong Kong. He was then taken across the border to China, possibly by boat to avoid immigration controls, according to a New York Times report. Hong Kong police said at the time that he had crossed the border into mainland China. His company Tomorrow Group also said he was on the mainland. Still, the episode shocked Hong Kong at a time of increased influence from Beijing. Two years earlier, five Hong Kong booksellers disappeared from various locations in Asia and then reappeared in mainland China. Authorities in China have been silent on Xiao’s case, which was reportedly linked to an anti-corruption drive championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST In a 2014 statement in response to a New York Times profile, Xiao’s spokesman said he did not profit through his political connections, but by following Warren Buffett’s value investing strategy. “After studying Mr. Warren Buffett’s business philosophy, Mr. Xiao thought that engaging in business might be more suitable for his character,” said Yu Lan, a spokesman for Tomorrow Group. “Since then, Mr. Xiao has completely stayed away from politics and focused on business and investment.” Soon after reports of Xiao’s disappearance surfaced in 2017, investors began offloading stocks linked to Xiao’s companies. And in the summer of 2020, Chinese regulators seized billions of dollars worth of assets linked to the Tomorrow Group, which Xiao had controlled for more than two decades. A year later, state-owned investment firm China Chengtong Holdings Group Ltd said it would acquire a majority stake in a securities firm linked to the Tomorrow Group. In Hong Kong, Xiao’s alleged kidnapping in 2017 fueled suspicions of Beijing’s influence in a region guaranteed to be governed by “one country, two systems.” These fears were at the heart of massive protests that rocked Hong Kong two years later. Hong Kong residents were concerned that a proposed bill would allow extraditions to mainland China’s opaque judicial system. In response to the protests, Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020. This law allowed its security agencies to operate in the city and overturned the legal firewall between mainland and Hong Kong courts. For Xiao’s family, this week’s trail may end a long wait. “After five years of quiet waiting, our family still, based on my brother’s strict instructions, believes in the Chinese government and Chinese law,” Xiao’s older brother, Xinhua, told the Wall Street Journal last month. “It’s very complicated and full of drama,” he said. Additional reporting by AFP
