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  • 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 asdonations.”

  • But if thesedonationswere 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 saywas”, 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, umcharitable contributions”,

  • were in exchange forvaluable oil rightsfor 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 Storyforums at the United Nations.

  • Last year, he coined the concept of Belt and Road

  • asglobalization 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 inglobalization 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 ofliang,

  • who according to Chinese state-run media

  • did not restrain himselfand

  • crazily took bribesto 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.

On this episode of China Uncensored,

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B1 中級 美國腔

大規模賄賂醜聞中的一帶一路億萬富翁(Belt & Road Billionaire in Massive Bribery Scandal)

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    zijun su 發佈於 2021 年 05 月 21 日
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