‘It’s an abnormal, unpredict • Table.Briefings

Entrepreneur Desmond Shum once maintained close ties with China’s top cadres. So he knows the enigmatic Chinese system from the inside.

Desmond Shum and his wife Whitney Duan were closely associated with China’s top cadres as business people. But then Duan disappeared without a trace; she was one of China’s wealthiest women at the time. Fabian Peltsch spoke with Shum about how China’s leadership deliberately creates an atmosphere of fear through opacity and what the recent disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang means for the party apparatus.

Your ex-wife Duan Weihong used to be one of China’s wealthiest women. Before her sudden disappearance in 2017, she maintained close contact with high-ranking government cadres under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. In your book „Red Roulette,“ you give a profound insight into the corruption and intransparency of a system in which even the most powerful can suddenly disappear, as is the case now with Foreign Minister Qin Gang, the most prominent case so far. Since you know the apparatus from the inside: What do you think happened to him?

‘It’s an abnormal, unpredictable state’

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