Arrest of Vietnamese businesswoman reveals shady links with China | International

The arrest of chairwoman of Vietnam-based Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, Troung My Lan, has again brought the Chinese connection with business tycoons in Vietnam into limelight, The Singapore Post reported. Earlier, on October 8, Troung My Lan was arrested on suspicion of financial fraud as the country intensified its long anti-graft fight drive, The Strait Times reported.

Truong My Lan was accused of illegally issuing bonds to raise trillions of dong (tens of millions of dollars) from investors during the 2018-2019 periods, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam said in a news statement released on October 8. Troung My Lan’s husband, who is a Cantonese Chinese and deals in real estate, is reportedely from distant family member of former disgraced Chinese security tsar Zhou Yongkang and maintains strong ties with senior party functionaries in China.

The unnatural death of three senior executives from Van Thinh Phat group during the first few days of October 2022 raised speculation of Chinese connection in this case, according to The Singapore Post. The Vietnamese authorities are assuming that the three people, belonging to Van Thinh Phat group, have been eliminated by Chinese spies to save Lan as they had proof of all her misdoings.

There are also rumours that death of Vietnam’s former President Tran Dai Quang was also linked to the Chinese. Tran had died in 2018 while holding the post of President. He was apparently given one billion Dollars by Lan as bribe but he did not further the Chinese interest. According to senior doctors who were handling his case, no investigations could point out what disease he was suffering from and it appeared to be a case of poisoning, according to Singapore Post.

Considering the sensitivity of the case, the the Vietnamese authorities have banned media houses from publishing this story and have attributed the deaths to natural causes. It is a known fact in Vietnam that there is a strong network of Chinese spies and almost all important set ups are infiltrated by these operatives who do not fear taking extreme actions like poisoning the opponents. There is large number of Chinese Vietnamese in Vietnam who are acquiring properties at strategic locations in other parts of the countries and most of them have connections in the mainland China.

With the objective of preventing purchase of land at strategic locations by Chinese nationals, the government of Vietnam had passed a resolution that no land along the coast of Danang can be purchased by a foreigner. However, the Chinese have circumvented this clause by either marrying a local Vietnamese or funding a Vietnamese to buy land along the coast. Similarly, Chinese businessmen have also bought a large number of properties in the strategically located Van Don Island in the Gulf of Tonkin in South China Sea, reported Singapore Post. Beijing is known for using corrupt leaders, businessmen of economically weak countries to make inroads into those nations. This enables Chinese State to not only further its business interest in these countries but also surreptitiously penetrate the nation’s polity, with the objective to ensure its long-term influence, Singapore Post reported. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)