Xiao Jianhua, the tycoon abducted from Hong Kong by Chinese agents last year, is working with authorities in China to sell off many of his investment company’s assets in an attempt to reduce mounting financial risks, according to two people familiar with the operation.
Once a broker for China’s political elite and one of the country’s richest men, Mr Xiao was last seen in January 2017 when mainland Chinese authorities seized him from the Four Seasons hotel in central Hong Kong, where he had been living for months.
The abduction marked the start of a campaign by China’s leaders to curb mounting leverage in the country’s financial sector and reassert Communist party control over some of China’s more flamboyant billionaires.