Vietnamese woman linked to downfall of China's top officials Options

[northstar]

Vietnamese woman linked to downfall of China's top officials

A Vietnamese refugee-turned-billionaire has been linked to the downfall of some of China's most powerful figures.



The story of Ms Li Wei, 48, has been making headlines in China.

Li was born in Vietnam with a mixed French-Vietnamese background. At the age of seven she was brought to Honghe county in China's southern Yunnan province along the Sino-Vietnamese border as a refugee searching for a better life.

She began her career peddling tobacco products, before marrying a top official at the local tobacco bureau.

Influential Chinese business magazine Caijing ran a 14-page feature on how Ms Li had used her husband's networks to get close to top officials in Yunnan, China, before moving on to acquire more powerful friends across the nation.

Li is described as being an attractive, fair-skinned woman, "with an alluring dress sense".

According to media reports, Ms Li managed to gain access to former Yunnan governor Li Jiating, who became her lover.

She helped him get resident status for his son in Hong Kong in exchange for tobacco export quotas. The governor narrowly escaped the death sentence in 2003 for taking more than S$39 million in bribes.

Another prime catch was Chen Tonghai, former chairman of the state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec).

She also became the mistress of Du Shichen, Qingdao's former Communist Party secretary.

Investigations by Chinese authorities showed that Li boosted her assets to close to ten billion Chinese yuan (S$1.94b) with extensive operations in tobacco, real estate, petroleum, securities and advertising.

Ms Li was detained for tax evasion in 2006 and had most of her assets confiscated, but was released soon after and is now living in Hong Kong.

However, many of her lovers that she implicated remain in detention, while some have been sentenced to death on corruption and misdemeanour charges.

[VNCHedgehog]

What's her Vietnamese name? Li Wei is as Vietnamese as Sheikh al Ali bin Mohammad Mukhta

Up to 1978 there were 1 million Chinese living in Vietnam near the Chinese border, even today, many of these people who live in the West are literate only in Vietnamese.

[Antiwar]

If true, that is just shocking

[vnski]

We do good business

[shport]

That's Vietnamese style baby. Totally degrading, and shameless means of getting rich. Those are qualities forever associated with Vietnamese women all over the world.

[papen]

That's Vietnamese style baby. Totally degrading, and shameless means of getting rich. Those are qualities forever associated with Vietnamese women all over the world.

Li was born in Vietnam with a mixed French-Vietnamese background. At the age of seven she was brought to Honghe county in China's southern Yunnan province

Welcome to China.

This post has been edited by papen: Feb 21 2011, 12:51 AM

[SoCal]

You are so dumb. Of course, when people do bad things, you say they are Vietnamese and when people do good things, you say they are Chinese. Don't you get tired of this stereotype already. Go and get a brain and think, would you? You are a dumb coconut and I feel sorry for you.

That's Vietnamese style baby. Totally degrading, and shameless means of getting rich. Those are qualities forever associated with Vietnamese women all over the world.

This post has been edited by SoCal: Feb 21 2011, 11:05 AM