My Take | Top Chinese tech banker’s unexplained disappearance challenges Beijing’s bid to win trust of investors
- The lack of transparency about China Renaissance founder Bao Fan’s whereabouts has sent a chill across China’s private economy
- The unexplained disappearance of Bao could undo efforts by Beijing to win back the trust of investors since ending its rigid zero-Covid policies
Last Thursday, China Renaissance said its board was “not aware of any information that indicates that Bao’s unavailability is or might be related to [its] business”, a polite way of saying that the company had no idea about his whereabouts.
Apart from that statement, information is scarce about the latest status of Bao. Neither Communist Party disciplinary organs nor the police have released any information about the Shanghai-born investment banker. His family has remained silent on the matter.
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Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan reportedly missing, sending Renaissance shares tumbling
According to Chinese media outlet Caixin, the first news organisation to report on Bao’s disappearance, the mogul went missing after Cong Lin, a senior executive at China Renaissance, was taken away by authorities for investigation in September.
Cong was a former chairman of ICBC International Holdings, the investment banking arm of China’s largest state-owned bank.
Caixin’s report, however, did not directly tie Bao’s disappearance to the investigation of Cong. It did not say that Bao was taken away by authorities for questioning, either as a target of investigation himself or to assist in other inquiries. There is currently no evidence to suggest that any allegations have been levelled against Bao.
Without knowing more details, it is impossible to tell if Bao will re-emerge in public after just a few days or weeks, just as some other Chinese tycoons did after they went temporarily incommunicado, or whether he will remain unreachable until his name shows up much later in a state media report. Few people, maybe not even Bao, know at this stage.
