Today’s post will cover an often revisited RNLJ topic: China’s Red Notice abuse. INTERPOL member countries have always abused Red Notices, and no matter how many reforms are put into place, the sheer number of INTERPOL member countries dictates that INTERPOL abuse will never fully vanish. Some member countries are worse than others, however, and China has one of the most prolific histories of abusing INTERPOL’s tools.
While Red Notices are designed to allow cooperation between police agencies worldwide, China has increasingly exploited this system to pursue political dissidents, critics, and individuals involved in non-violent activities that are deemed problematic by Chinese officials. This abuse of the Red Notice system raises concerns about the integrity of INTERPOL and its protection of human rights.
Estlund Law has experience dealing with multiple cases wherein the Chinese government raised false charges against individuals in retaliation for dissident speech, the collection of extreme wealth, or a combination of both.
Dissident speech led to criminal charges
For example, in the case of Chuang Liang Li, (shared with the client’s permission) Mr. Li exposed corruption within the Chinese Communist Party. When he spoke out against the Chinese government and its corruption, authorities filed charges against Mr. Li, accusing him of “embezzling large amounts of state-owned funds and accepting bribes.” Subsequently, Mr. Li’s family members were arrested and told that their arrest was due to Mr. Li’s public criticism of Chinese authorities. His former colleagues and friends were also arrested, interrogated, and tortured, and a Red Notice was issued in his name.
Unfortunately, our client’s experience was by no means unique. Chinese officials are currently criminally prosecuting scores of private and public-sector business leaders in an effort to maintain economic and political control.
Communist Party critic and billionaire farmer and businessman Sun Dawu once employed over ten thousand people. He openly criticized the Chinese Communist Party and advocated for democracy; he is now serving an 18-year sentence for corruption. Like our client, Mr. Sun’s family members were jailed in relation to his criminal case, which observers have characterized as a means of eliminating a threat to the Party’s control over the economy. Attorney Li, Jinxhing (see below) succinctly articulates the CCP’s goal with respect to extremely successful business owners in China, several of whom received identical 18-year sentences in wholly unrelated cases:
“It’s very simple. The authorities want them to die in jail. It’s terrifying when you think about it.”
A recent Reuters special report highlighted other successful business owners who have been targeted by the Chinese government include:
- Li Jinxing, one of China’s top criminal defense and human rights lawyers prior to being disbarred for criticizing legal and political authorities; his case has been the focus of Human Rights Watch and Lawyers for Lawyers reports and a U.S. congressional hearing.
- Ren Zhiqiang, a real estate tycoon and blogger, who was sentenced to 18 years for corruption. He was accused of being disloyal and was detained after after an article that was widely attributed to him and circulated online, criticized the government’s handling of COVID-19;
- Wu Xiaohui, former chairman of Anbang Insurance Group. He acquired New York’s landmark Waldorf Astoria hotel. Before he was sentenced to 18 years in prison (see the theme here?), prosecutors focused on Wu’s “unchecked ambition and reckless expansion, which resulted in risks to the Chinese financial system;” this charge has also been raised against other business moguls.
- Jack Ma, owner of Alibaba, who until recently had receded from the public eye since criticizing Chinese regulators in 2020.
- Tian Huiyu, former president of China Merchants Bank, who received a suspended death sentence for charges of bribery and insider trading.
These cases are precisely the type of matters that form the underlying basis for abusive Red Notice requests from China. Given the current focus on identifying and punishing business tycoons for their words and their wealth, the fresh wave of abusive Red Notices from China that our firm is seeing is unsurprising.
In our next post, we will detail the financial windfall that the Chinese government achieves in cases where successful business owners are targeted.
As always, thoughts and comments are welcomed.
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