中国の植民地、ニセコ（７）
丸の内とニセコを買ったのはリチャード・リー。その父親が李嘉誠である。番外編で『秘録 華人財閥』を少し紹介した。李嘉誠を中心に、著者曰くジャーナリスティックな視点で書かれている。ウェブにも情報は山ほど出ているが、玉石混交で何が本当か・・
1928年に広東州で生まれ、1940年日本の侵略で家族と共に香港に逃れる。香港には母親の兄弟の莊静庵が先に入り富豪となっていた。父親は李嘉誠が14歳の時に亡くなり15歳で家族を養うため、学校を止めて働く。莊静庵の娘で４つ年下の荘月明と恋に落ち、20代後半で財を成して、10年越しの恋を実らせる。しかしその荘月明は1990年の正月５６歳で亡くなる。李嘉誠には若い愛人が何人かいた。
李嘉誠は最初プラスチックの造花で成功したのだが、自分の工場を持ったことがきっかけで不動産業に手を出す。不動産デベロッパーとしてどんどん発展し、アジア一の金持ちとなったのである。資産の3分の1を出して財団を作り、2018年に引退し、長男に譲るも未だ影響力があるようだ。2023年は95歳だ。
一番気になるのは彼と中国政府、そして三合会などマフィアとの関係だ。
2019年のロイターの記事に李嘉誠と習近平の関係が書かれていた。
天安門事件の4年後、1993年共産党幹部だった習近平が香港の李嘉誠を訪ね福州への投資を募った。同年李嘉誠は福州を訪ね開発事業が開始。香港返還の1997年には国営電気通信企業、中国電信の上場を助けた。
https://jp.reuters.com/article/hongkong-protests-tycoons-idJPKBN1Y30F5
しかし、中国の対応は自由経済を推進する李嘉誠初め香港財閥と軋轢を起こし、李嘉誠も財産をケイマン諸島など海外に移して行った。中国政府はこれを批判した。日本、ニセコの開発もこの流れの中にあるのだろうか？
三合会、マフィアとの関係だが、彼を使って中国の土地を得たと言うような情報も見かけたが実際はわからない。しかし香港の金持ちはマフィアに次から次へと誘拐され身代金を要求されるのだ。李嘉誠も例外ではなかった。
李嘉誠と習近平の緊張を伝える記事。「一朝君子一朝臣」
Niseko, a Chinese colony (7)
Richard Li was the man who bought Marunouchi and Niseko. His father was Li Ka-shing. In an aside, I briefly introduced "Secret Records: The Chinese Zaibatsu". The book is written from a journalistic point of view, with a focus on Li Ka-shing, according to the author. There is a lot of information about Li and his family on the web, but it is a mixed bag, and it is hard to know what is true.
Born in Guangdong Province in 1928, he fled with his family to Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion in 1940. His mother's brother, Zhuang Jing-an, was the first to arrive in Hong Kong and became a wealthy man. His father died when Li Ka-shing was 14 years old, and at the age of 15, he stopped school to work to support his family. He fell in love with Zhuang Jing-an's daughter, Zhuang Yue-ming, who was four years younger than him, and in his late 20s, he made a fortune and fulfilled his love of over ten years. However, Zhuang Yue Ming died at the age of 56 on New Year's Day 1990. Li Ka-shing had several young lovers.
Li Ka-shing was first successful in the plastic artificial flower business, but when he owned his own factory, he started to work in the real estate business. He became the richest real estate developer in Asia. He gave a third of his assets to create a foundation, retired in 2018 and gave it to his eldest son, but still seems to be influential. 2023 he will be 95 years old.
What concerns me most is his relationship with the Chinese government and the mafia, including the Triad.
A Reuters article in 2019 described the relationship between Li Ka-shing and Xi Jinping.
In 1993, four years after the Tiananmen Square protests, Xi Jinping, a senior Communist Party official, visited Li Ka-shing in Hong Kong to solicit investment in Fuzhou. In the same year, Li Ka-shing visited Fuzhou and development projects began. In 1997, after the return of Hong Kong to China, he helped the state-owned telecommunications company China Telecom to list its shares on the stock exchange.
https://jp.reuters.com/article/hongkong-protests-tycoons-idJPKBN1Y30F5
However, China's handling of the situation caused friction with the Hong Kong conglomerates that had promoted a free economy at the time, and Li Ka-shing also moved his property overseas, including to the Cayman Islands. The Chinese government criticized this. Is the development of Niseko, Japan part of this trend?
As for the relationship with Triad and the mafia, I have seen some information that he was used to acquire land in China, but I don't know the actual situation. However, rich people in Hong Kong are kidnapped and ransomed by the mafia one after another. Li Ka-shing was no exception.
