Australians planning to dip their toes back in the waters of the Chinese economy in the wake of the Covid pandemic should 'think twice,' a Chinese entrepreneur whose billionaire ex-wife was snatched by Beijing's secret police told Daily Mail Australia.
Desmond Shum has penned a chilling insider's account of what it's like to navigate high-level business deals under Xi Jinping's ruthless 'one-man dictatorship'.
The book, Red Roulette, gives a brutally honest perspective of what companies and entrepreneurs can expect to face in China once its borders reopen - as a crackdown on non state-owned entities intensifies.
The developing nation was riding a tidal wave of economic success after more than a decade of double digit growth during the 2000s, with one of the greatest accumulations of wealth in human history creating a stampede of freshly-made billionaires.
Mr Shum and his politically connected wife Whitney Duan embodied that dramatic rise, making about US$3billion by charming their way into lucrative Chinese stock IPOs and developing a vast real estate network including one of Beijing's most lavish hotels and the largest air cargo logistics facility in China.
Chinese Billionaire Whitney Duan (pictured in Tiananmen Square during the 1990s) who was snatched off the street by Beijing's secret police in September 2017 and held without charge for four years, cut off from any contact with her friends, family and young son
Desmond Shum (pictured on a private jet with his son) just penned a chilling insider's account of what it's like to navigate high-level business deals under Xi Jinping's ruthless 'one-man dictatorship'
There was so much money floating around at that time, that when the couple flew to Paris on a jaunt with three other Communist Party elites and their wives in 2011, they took not one but three private jets.
On the runway the group decided it might be fun to play cards on the trip, so they all piled into the one jet and the two other private planes flew to Europe empty.
But having that much wealth in China can be extremely dangerous, particularly if you fall out of favour with the Communist Party, Mr Shum said.
Mr Shum suspects this is what happened to his former wife Whitney Duan who was snatched off the street by Beijing's secret police in September 2017 and held without charge for four years, cut off from any contact with her friends, family and young son.
'There is a lot of tension between Communist Party factions and we became political roadkill,' he said.
'I left China in 2015 with my son but we would speak a couple of times a week but suddenly my calls were not answered. They never explained why she was detained and she has never been prosecuted.'
Mr Shum and his politically connected wife Whitney Duan (pictured together in Switzerland, 2004) embodied the rise of China, minting themselves about US$3billion by charming their way into lucrative Chinese stock IPOs and developing a vast real estate network including one of Beijing's most lavish hotels and the largest air cargo logistics facility in China
Mr Shum accused his government of targeting and silencing rich business people in his new memoir, 'Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption and Vengeance in Today's China'
Because the business world in China is dictated by political power, anybody who wants to be successful 'needs to be associated with the Communist Party'.
Ms Duan did this with unparalleled skill, parlaying an alliance with the family of political titan Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and his wife, Zhang Peili, with 'unimaginable success'.
Mr Shum writes that he and Whitney didn't
