storyIn his autobiography, now available in French, Desmond Shum, exiled in London, evokes, through his own journey and that of his ex-wife, the extent of the corruption of the elites in his country.
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It’s 4 a.m. on September 5, 2021, but Desmond Shum is struggling to sleep. In two days, the English edition of his autobiography is due to appear and will reveal the corruption of the elites in his country, China. This former billionaire expects the worst. In the London apartment where he has been living in exile since 2015, his phone vibrates: he is asked to call his ex-wife, Whitney Duan, who was also his business partner for fifteen years. It has been four years since she gave any sign of life. Incredulous, he dials her number. She responds, indicates that she is on bail and tries to convince him to give up the publication. Along the way, she transmits to him the threats of those who hold her, even evoking the ” price to pay ” , as soon as the Chinese state is provoked. “What if something happened to Ariston ? she worries about their young son.
This book, titled Chinese Roulette. Revelations of a red billionaire. Money, power, corruption and revenge in today’s China, published in French, Wednesday March 9, by Saint-Simon editions (268 pages, 23 euros). It offers a fascinating insight into the ties between wealthy entrepreneurs and senior leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but also the privileges enjoyed by the “red princes”, the heirs of the founding fathers of the CCP. A rare testimony in this country increasingly closed in on itself under the reign of Xi Jinping, who had made the fight against corruption his priority when he came to power in 2012.
“Re-educated” parents
With the approach of the release of the book in France, Mr. Shum gave a video interview to the World, in his London apartment, furnished with a grand piano and elegant red velvet sofas. The opportunity for this big guy with a square face, strong nose and receding hairline, to look back on his journey.
He was born in Shanghai in 1968, in the midst of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). His parents, teachers, are sent in turn to the countryside to be “re-educated”. At the first opportunity, they migrate to Hong Kong where family members live. The young Desmond will spend his college and high school years there, before leaving to study finance in the United States.
For her part, Whitney Duan, from a family of minor civil servants, never left China where she worked hard to escape her modest background. Her first job as assistant to a university president taught her the customs of the decision-makers of the CCP, of which she herself became a member during her studies. After a stint in a local government, then with a real estate developer, owned by the army, she launched out on her own by creating a company, Great Ocean. Willing to be a jack-of-all-trades, she works both in real estate and in the sale of computer servers.
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