Yuan Baojing

Yuan Baojing (simplified Chinese: 袁宝璟; traditional Chinese: 袁寶璟; pinyin: Yuán Bǎojǐng; 16 February 1966 – 17 March 2006) was a Chinese billionaire from Liaoyang, Liaoning province. He was the president of the Beijing-based Jianhao Group. He was convicted of murder and executed in March 2006, after what appeared to be a feud with Sichuan businessman Liu Han (executed 9 years later).

Biography

Yuan was raised in an ordinary family of peasants. After making his fortune in Beijing, he was nicknamed "Beijing's Li Ka-shing". Yuan lost nearly 100 million yuan in futures trading, and believed that it was caused by the Sichuan businessman Liu Han's manipulation of a broker. He offered a former policeman, Wang Xing, 160,000 yuan for Liu's life. Wang in turn hired the contract killer Li Haiyang. In February 1997, Li shot at Liu twice in a Sichuan hotel but missed him. Li was captured and later sentenced to life in prison. Wang Xing, sensing that Yuan did not uphold his end of the bargain, then repeatedly blackmailed Yuan, who, with his brother Yuan Baoqi, hired their cousins to murder Wang in 2003.^[1]

Yuan was found guilty of the murder in January 2005 and was due to die by firing squad on 14 October 2005. The day before the execution date, his wife, Zhuoma, a Tibetan dancer, transferred ownership of shares worth 49.5 billion yuan to the government, including shares of an Indonesian oilfield, hoping to win some time to reverse the sentence. Yuan won a stay of execution until March 2006.^[2][3]

Yuan Baojing, along with his brother Yuan Baoqi and cousin Yuan Baosen, was executed by lethal injection in March 2006. Another cousin, Yuan Baofu, received a suspended death sentence.^[3]

The case regained attention in 2013, when media outlets raised speculation about the proceedings of the case and possible involvement of former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who, through his son Zhou Bin, became something of a political patron for Liu Han. At the time of Yuan's execution, Zhou was the Minister of Public Security and a member of the Politburo. Media reports questioned that if Yuan was indeed the culprit, guilty of hiring a hand for murder, why his brother and cousin also needed to be put to death, raising the possibility that Liu Han had asked for especially tough sentencing because the Yuan brothers had information that Liu wanted to suppress, and that Liu had high-level backing (assumed to be Zhou Yongkang) to carry out the sentences.^[4]

Liu Han, the long time rival of Yuan, was himself executed in 2015.

References