On Wednesday, attention was focused on the news of Huawei's arrest, ignoring another thing. On the same day, former Secretary for Home Affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region, former National CPPCC member and husband of TW actress Huizhong Ho, was convicted of bribery in New York Manhattan Federal Court. Mr. Ho is likely to be sentenced to up to 65 years in prison and a huge fine of up to $1.65 million, due to be handed down on March 4 next year.
In connection with the Meng Evenzhou incident and Liu Qiangdong's previous charges against rape women, it seems to be possible to conclude that Chinese entrepreneurs and business people are no longer limited to China's law jurisdiction, because of the overseas expansion of commercial scope. They can hardly avoid links with the United States, so they are in fact covered by the law, including the English-speaking Jack Ma.
To use Zhang Yimou's words, if committed in the hands of the American, I am afraid all of them.
Whether pro-American or anti-American, in the face of this situation, the heart will not be very comfortable. Or you can call the United States too domineering, or blame yourself: things like Jingdong being a family have nothing to do with bribing or spying on business? At the end of the day, I didn't control myself.
He Zhiping trial lasted more than a week, during which Hu Huizhong and other relatives and friends did not appear.
In court, he looked nervous, and when the jury found guilty, he looked sad.
Of the eight charges against three African dignitaries, five related to the United States' overseas Anti-corruption Act and three related to money-laundering, the only one convicted of which was money-laundering in the Chad case.
He is an ophthalmologist, doctor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, and an academician of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. After his divorce, he served as Director of Home Affairs from July 2002 to June 2007.
On November 18 last year, he Zhiping was arrested in New York. The day after Senegalese Foreign Minister Sheikh Gadio was also arrested in New York.
Prosecutors accused Mr Ho of bribing African officials for Shanghai-based China Huaxin Energy Co., Ltd. Gadio was the middleman and beneficiary of bribery.
After stepping down from public office in 2007, Mr Ho mainly engaged in private activities, including the promotion of prevention and treatment of ocular fundus diseases in the mainland. But he also serves as vice-chairman of the China Energy Foundation, which is funded by Huaxin Energy.
This is the position that links prominent ophthalmologists with oil, Chinese energy companies and African oil-producing countries.
According to the prosecution's allegations, on 30 September 2014, he contacted an intermediary who knew the former Senegalese Foreign Minister Sheikh Gadio by e-mail, hoping to contact Gadio. Let Gadio arrange for Ho Zhiping to meet with Chadian President Idriss Deby, to co-ordinate relations.
In October, Gadio met with Debbie and told him that he could provide him with secret funding for the presidential election.
After Gadio was in the middle, Ho Chi-ping soon got a chance. On Nov. 11, he met with a company representative at New York when Zebi was attending the UN General Assembly. During a two-hour meeting, Mr Ho said he wanted Debbie to help Huaxin move into Chad's energy sector, providing it with $2 million.
Mr Ho said the money was used for charitable purposes, but prosecutors believed the actual use was bribery.
Chad is widely regarded as one of the most corruption countries in the world. In October 2006, Forbes magazine listed it as "the country most vulnerable to misuse of humanitarian aid". The World Bank allocated Chad $30 million to build an oil pipeline from Chad to Cameroon, but Chad's government later detained it, arguing that "it should be used to help the vast number of poor people in Chad". In fact, the money was later used to buy weapons.
To thank Gadio, in March 2015 and July 2015, Mr. Ho sent $ two hundred thousand, or $ four hundred thousand, twice from Hong Kong via a bank in New York to a bank account held by Gadio in Dubai.
I do not know whether or not through Gadio, he Zhiping later established contact with Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesar. In October 2014, during Kutesa's 69th session as President of the General Assembly, He met with him at the United Nations headquarters in New York. On March 12, 2015, he met again with Kutesar at United Nations headquarters.
On May 6, 2016, Mr. Ho remitted $ five hundred thousand from Hong Kong via New York to a bank account in Uganda after he returned to Uganda after he stepped down as President of the General Assembly. Prosecutors said the money was in exchange for Kuthasa to help Huaxin Energy obtain financial and energy business contracts in Uganda, including the acquisition of a Ugandan bank.
After his arrest in November last year, Ho Chi-ping repeatedly proposed the bail, and in April this year, he took the initiative to "increase the code", on the basis of the original proposed $10 million deposit and five friends residing in the United States as guarantee members and other bail conditions. Two properties owned by his mother and brother Ho Chi-Chung in Hong Kong and US $1 million were also proposed as collateral, two of which were worth about US $4 million.
In May, federal judge Catherine Frith concluded after a hearing that Mr. Ho, 69, faces at least 10 years in prison on several counts; if sentenced, he could end up in prison. Mr Ho's three requests for bail, aimed at exchanging money for his life, adding to the enigma of his property behind him, put him at high risk of absconding. Once returned to Hong Kong, it would be difficult for the US judicial authorities to be sure they could extradite him, so he refused his bail request.
At the time of his detention, he Zhiping was in a good mood and defended himself in a telephone conversation with a friend, saying that he would not betray his friends and country, and that the Americans were using themselves to catch the "big tiger" and to belittle "Belt and Road Initiative." He said that even if he died in prison, he would not give in.
He also tried to get a general manager of Huaxin Energy USA to visit the prison. In an email to the general manager, he said the lawsuit was not just about himself, but also a trial of Huaxin Energy, China and Chinese values. He said he would not give in and would "fight to the end".
Surprisingly, however, in September, prosecutors in Manhattan reached an agreement with Gadio's defence, lawer, to drop the charges against Gadio, and Gadio agreed to appear as a tainted witness in the Ho Chi-ping case.
Mr. Ho Chi-ping's case may have a question: does this have a relationship with the United States? Hong Kong's former senior official "to pay a bribe" to African state officials, are the American people?
This involves the U.S.'s overseas Anti-corruption Act, a 1977 domestic law designed to crack down on U.S. companies by bribing foreign officials to enter into commercial transactions.
Yes, the overseas Anti-corruption Act is not limited to United States companies, and the law has since been amended to give the United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission the right to have subsidiaries in the United States. Or foreign companies trading on the American Stock Exchange have extensive jurisdiction. In short, the jurisdiction of the United States is beyond the understanding of the general public. As long as the corruption activities use the American bank payment system and the services of American companies, in the view of American judicial authorities, this is tantamount to violating the United States law, regardless of the country involved, including government officials, the United States has the right to arrest people.
In recent years, the Justice Department, in cooperation with international law enforcement agencies, has increasingly filed prosecute lawsuits against foreign companies and executives who bribe foreign government officials. Among them, Chinese companies, especially their overseas units, have become important targets for monitoring.
Because of traditional habits, Chinese people like to use money to start things, think this method is very useful. In fact, many similar practices in the United States and other Western countries will not work, or even cause trouble.
In this regard, China's government statement is consistent. On Nov. 21, the third day of his arrest at New York, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in Beijing that China's government had always asked Chinese companies to operate legally abroad and comply with local law regulations.
According to analysts, the evidence in the Ho Chi-ping case deleted a number of key persons involved in the case, and it is believed that the United States judicial authorities have targeted a number of persons involved in the case, and that there may be next steps to be taken in the future. So the case is not directed at Mr Ho himself, but at the "corruption network" that the United States has long suspected.
From Zhou Libo to Liu Qiangdong, from Meng Evening to he Zhiping, America's actions against China are getting bigger and bigger, celebrities, tycoons, senior officials, which are what ordinary Chinese see as an unmistakable shield against law, are out of order here in the United States. Don't run to the United States, once you give an ordinary person treatment, feeling unadapted or trivial, the key is that it is not easy to get people out of the way.
Ge You, who put his hands behind Xu Fan when the USCIS searched the hotel, had a line to Xu Fan: "do as I say, and don't do anything else. The US police are really shoot."