In central Beijing, near the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, stands luxurious Pangu Plaza. It boasts a hotel and three high-end housing complexes—a single flat here is worth $16 million.
But behind Pangu Plaza, developed by businessman Guo Wengui, lies a story of sex scandals, corruption, and ties to some of the Chinese regime’s most notable disgraced officials, including former deputy chief of China’s intelligence agency Ma Jian and Ling Jihua, who formerly headed the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.
First reported on March 24, the narrative is now making the rounds in major Chinese financial publications. The tale offers a rare look at the Byzantine workings of China’s elite, where money, corruption, and politics regularly blur, and where behind the scenes in small intrigues, powerful factional forces seem to lurk.
A Development Feud in Central Beijing
Guo Wengui, a controlling shareholder in Beijing Zenith Holdings and Beijing Pangu Investment, is now being implicated in a 2006 conspiracy to bring down then-deputy mayor of Beijing, Liu Zhihua.
There was bad blood between Guo and Liu the previous year, when Guo, having lost development rights to what was then known as Morgan Plaza, approached the deputy mayor in an effort to reacquire the property. With the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, municipal authorities cited concerns about the financial viability of Guo’s project, which, if left unfinished by the time of the games, would present an eyesore to the urban landscape.
