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12-06-2015 19:46 |
来源:纽约时报 By MICHAEL FORSYTHE DEC. 6, 2015
HONG KONG — A 44-year-old businessman who became one of China’s wealthiest people as he forged ties with some of the Communist Party’s top leaders before suddenly falling out of favor has died in prison.
The death on Friday of the businessman, Xu Ming, was reported by several news agencies, including the financial newsmagazine Caixin and the Chinese government-owned Wen Wei Po, a newspaper in Hong Kong. China’s principal state-run news outlets, however, have said nothing about Mr. Xu’s death.
Caixin reported that Mr. Xu died of a heart attack in the city of Wuhan, in central China, and on Sunday his ashes were taken to the northeastern port city of Dalian, where his career began. He was to be released next September, according to Wen Wei Po and Caixin.
A multimillionaire before he turned 30, and a billionaire shortly after, Mr. Xu’s most prominent political patron was the mayor of Dalian, Bo Xilai, whose government in the 1990s gave the young businessman lucrative contracts to beautify the city. Mr. Xu’s Shide Group expanded into building materials and real estate and in 1999 bought Dalian’s championship soccer team from the city’s other powerful and politically connected businessman, Wang Jianlin, the chairman of Dalian Wanda Group.
Photo [attachment=78962] Xu Ming Credit China Daily/Reuters
Mr. Xu’s fortune swelled as Mr. Bo rose through the ranks of the party’s leadership. He became China’s eighth-richest person in 2005, according to Forbes, and focused many of his investments on the country’s growing insurance industry.
Mr. Bo’s downfall in March 2012 was quickly followed by Mr. Xu’s own detention, under circumstances that have never been explained by the authorities. When Mr. Bo was indicted in 2013, prosecutors charged that he had received millions of dollars in payoffs from Mr. Xu, including a villa on the French Riviera. Mr. Xu was also accused of paying for extravagant trips for Mr. Bo’s son, including one to Africa.
Yet Mr. Xu maintained close ties to many prominent leaders, including rivals of Mr. Bo. In Beijing, Mr. Xu shared an office floor with the wife of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, and was a co-investor in several businesses with Wen family members. Close associates said he had dated Mr. Wen’s daughter, Wen Ruchun.
“He was a public relations genius,” Larry Cheng, one of Mr. Xu’s longtime business partners, told The New York Times in 2013. “He was helping everyone in the leadership. He knew just who to get close to and how to do it.”
Mr. Xu’s fall from grace highlighted the delicate position of many ambitious businesspeople in China. To become successful, they make themselves indispensable to party officials and their families. Often those relationships involve corruption, and if the party officials get into trouble, their business associates can be dragged down with them.
It is not known whether an autopsy was performed. But only two days passed between Mr. Xu’s death and his ashes being brought to Dalian. It recalls the mysterious death and hasty cremation of a British business associate of Mr. Bo’s, Neil Heywood. His death in November 2011 set off a chain of events that led to Mr. Bo’s downfall. Mr. Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of Mr. Heywood’s murder and is, like her husband, in prison for life.
For Mr. Xu to die so young, in custody and less than a year before his scheduled release, and then to be “cremated so quickly would certainly appear like there is prima face evidence for this to be investigated properly by the authorities,” said Steve Tsang, head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham in Britain. “Even if he had died of a heart ailment, had it happened in the U.K., I would expect an autopsy to be conducted and the family duly consulted before the case is closed.”
“But the P.R.C. is the P.R.C. and normal standards we have in Europe or North America do not always apply,” Mr. Tsang continued, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.
Mr. Tsang added, however, that there was no evidence suggesting foul play or anything other than a natural death. “But there is at the moment no credible evidence pointing to any particular explanation,” he said.
Attempts to contact prisons in the Wuhan area to obtain confirmation of Mr. Xu’s death and cremation were unsuccessful.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/world/asia/china-xu-ming-dies-prison.html?ref=world&_r=0
商人徐明狱中病故,曾涉薄熙来案 傅才德 2015年12月7日
香港——一名44岁的中国富商死于狱中。他与一些共产党高层领导人建立联系,因此成为中国最富有的人之一,但那些官员突然失势。
几家新闻媒体报道了商人徐明于周五死亡的消息,其中包括财经新闻网站财新网及中国政府旗下的香港《文汇报》。但中国主要的官方媒体没有报道相关新闻。
财新网报道称,徐明因心梗死于中国中部城市武汉,他的骨灰周日被送往东北港口城市大连,那里是他职业生涯开始的地方。据《文汇报》和财新网报道,徐明本应于明年9月获释。
徐明在30岁前成为百万富翁,不久之后跻身亿万富翁行列,徐明最主要的政治靠山是时任大连市长的薄熙来。薄熙来领导的政府在90年代把利润丰厚的美化城市的合同,交给了这名年轻商人。徐明的实德集团的业务,扩展至建筑材料和房地产,并在1999年从该市另一名势力巨大、具有政治背景的商人王健林手中,买下了该市曾获冠军的足球队。后者是大连万达集团董事长。
随着薄熙来跻身中共领导层,徐明的财富不断增加。2005年,徐明在“福布斯中国富豪榜”上排名第八,他将很多资金投入了该国不断发展的保险行业。
薄熙来在2012年3月倒台后,徐明很快就被带走调查,当局从未解释过具体的情况。薄熙来在2013年遭到起诉,检察官指控他收受徐明给予的数百万美元的贿赂,其中包括一栋位于法国里维埃拉的别墅。徐明还被控为薄熙来儿子的奢华旅行买单,其中包括一次非洲之行。
但徐明与很多重要领导人保持着密切联系,其中包括薄熙来的对手。在北京,徐明与前总理温家宝的夫人在同一楼层办公,他与温家宝的家人合伙投资开办了几家公司。与他们关系紧密的熟人说,徐明曾跟温家宝的女儿温如春约会。
“他是个公关天才,”徐明的长期商业伙伴程毅君(Larry Cheng)在2013年对《纽约时报》表示。“当时他在给领导层里的所有人帮忙。他确切地知道该接近谁,怎么接近。”
徐明的倒台突显了很多野心勃勃的商人在中国的微妙处境。为了取得成功,他们需要变成党内官员及其亲属身边必不可少的人。此类关系常常涉及腐败,如果党内官员自己陷入麻烦,他们的商业伙伴也会被拖下水。
目前尚不清楚是否进行了尸检。但从徐明死亡到骨灰被带回大连只隔了两天时间,这让人想起了薄熙来的英国商业伙伴尼尔·海伍德(Neil Heywood)的离奇死亡和匆忙火葬。海伍德在2011年11月死亡,引发了一连串事件,最终导致薄熙来下台。谷开来因谋杀海伍德被判处死缓,会像丈夫薄熙来一样在狱中度过余生。
徐明年纪轻轻死在狱中,离预计出狱的时间已经不到一年,然后“这么快就火化了,这显然构成了让当局对此开展认真调查的初步证据,”英格兰诺丁汉大学(University of Nottingham)当代中国学学院院长曾锐生(Steve Tsang)说。“即使他死于心脏疾病,如果是发生在英国,我预计当局也会先进行尸检,并且与其家人妥善协商之后才会结案。”
“但中国毕竟是中国,我们在欧洲或北美的正常标准并不总是能适用,”曾锐生说。
然而,曾锐生说,没有任何证据表明存在违规或任何非自然死亡的情形。“但是,目前没有可信的证据指向任何特定的解释,”他说。
时报尝试联系武汉地区的监狱,以核实徐明之死及火化的说法,但没有成功。
傅才德是《纽约时报》记者。 Kiki Zhao自北京对本文有研究贡献。 翻译:纽约时报中文网 |
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