On 12 November 1998, Zhang Zhang, who planned and organized the abduction of Li Ka-cheng’s son, who had received HK$362 million, was sentenced to death in first instance. It is unlikely that Zhang Zhiqiang has, until this moment, not given up his hope of being “not guilty” and that this hope came from Li Ka-cheng’s non-reporting.
I think I need to introduce myself before opening up this shocking story of thieves. I was a senior journalist and report writer, and I am now Vice-President of the Chinese Society for Reporting Literature, who worked for the Shenzhen Special Administrative Region. In March 2000, at the invitation of the Guangdong Provincial Council ‘ s Communications Department and the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, I conducted an interview to write a case against Zhang. I’m no stranger to the name Zhang Zhang Qiang. When I first saw from some newspaper media that Hong Kong Yakuza Zhang was being called the “Seventeenth Century Bandits”, I wondered whether it was to pursue sensationalism, and to “godize” the gang leader who only had a primary school degree. But as my visit progressed, I discovered that this man’s life was a human being, a ghost, a god.
Not only was Li Ka-cheng ‘ s eldest son, Li Zawa-chun, abducted that year, but the complexity of the whole case was not only the first in the great world of ransom.
This criminal group is made up of two criminal gangs, one of which is basically Hong Kong’s usual, and has a long history of criminal activity and is responsible for major crimes. Some members were hiding abroad because they were both in charge and could not return to Hong Kong. They speak of “intellectual crime”, headed by Zhang Zhang, known as the “Seventh Century Bandits” who used to say, “Do things with your head.”
The other is a group that has been designated by the Hong Kong police as the “first wanted person” Ye Jiqing. Ye Jiqing, a bandit, has repeatedly shot Hong Kong police in front of him in the streets of Hong Kong and killed a man suspected of betraying him in broad daylight in Shenzhen. I saw a photograph of the victim who was killed that year in the file room of the Public Security Department of Guangdong province, whose blood shocked me. Its criminal gangs are mainly involved in the public robbery of Hong Kong gold shops, and its members are mostly Mainlanders.
Ye Jia-Cheng was arrested by the Hong Kong police the night before he abducted his son and sentenced to more than 40 years of imprisonment until he died of cancer in Hong Kong prison in 2017. Although he has been serving his sentence for more than 20 years, his death has given Hong Kong’s media a “floating” period of time, as can be seen from his “impact” in Hong Kong.
The criminal group responsible for the abduction of Li Ka-cheng ‘ s son was eventually brought to court for prosecution by 36 persons who had committed crimes across the border of Port-au-Prince and created a number of egregious cases. Today, only his eldest son, Li Kacheng, the richest Chinese, is known for his abduction. In fact, soon after, they kidnapped Hong Kong’s second-largest rich man, Guo Bingjun, then Chairman of the board of directors of the “Ninhong Base Production”, and demanded a ransom of HK$ 600 million.
Another long story is that Kwok Bingzheng was kidnapped after having suffered a great deal more physical and psychological harm than financial damage. The kidnappers were planning to kidnap another rich man before they were arrested, when the whole of Hong Kong’s rich society was horrified and ballistic-protected vehicles were sold off.
Thus, when the case is solved, it naturally attracts the media worldwide.
The case was handled by the Guangdong Public Security Department, which was only a short time after Hong Kong returned, and because of the differences in legal systems between the mainland and Hong Kong, the unit had been careful not to make the case public in full. It also leaves much room for speculation and rhetoric in society and the media.
Five of the persons involved were sentenced to death, three of whom were Hong Kong nationals, the first being Zhang Zhang Zhang, who had originally initiated and planned all the details of the kidnapping and had “invested” HK$ 2 million in pre-trial financing. Zhang Zhiqiang was the mastermind and leader of all kidnappings and the last to receive ransoms.
In both cases, a total of HK$ 1,638 million in cash was requested, five vehicles were loaded and each of the papers was returned by one person, Chang Zhang. The second Hong Kong man was named Chen Ji Ho (who was later elected as a member of the Political Council after having taken money from the kidnapping to do good work in his home town). After Zhang Zhiqiang, he took the entire ransom for his son’s abduction, except for Zhang Zhiqiang, who committed the crime with several rules, one of which was that he only agreed to be part of his own, and that the rest of the money was to be distributed among him.
I went to the mansion he bought in Hong Kong for ransom with the help of Interpol. How far does this mansion go? The yacht can go straight to the back of his house. As a result of his misappropriation of a portion of the money and the subsequent story of the “kidnapped kidnappers”, Chen Zhi Ho also reported to the mainland public security authorities. Chen Ji-ho has killed a number of people, including his second child in Shenzhen.
There is also a mainland criminal named Ma Sang-chun, who is even more full of stories and who may not believe it when he arrives in Hong Kong, and who is an active platoon commander of an airport in Hubei. Ma Sang-chon’s guard platoon included a soldier from Guangdong who was already in service and knew Ye Ji-jin. When Ma Sang-thong came to Guangdong on leave, he followed Ye Ji-jin to Hong Kong to rob the gold shop.
There was a video that shocked the whole of Hong Kong society. On Hong Kong ‘ s densely populated Tong Street, a man who ran into a policeman while robbing a gold shop, who was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, scouring a policeman on the street without a mask, was Ma Sang-hong. At the time, a Hong Kong resident living in the next building secretly filmed it with a home camera and sold it to the television station, so that many people could see it. As a result, Ma Sang-chon was shot in the leg by the Hong Kong police and managed to escape, but became a cripple.
Later, Ma Shanzhong was unable to return to the army and became a bandit. At the time of the abduction of Li Ka-cheng’s son, Ma Sang-chun had been sentenced to 11 years in prison for another case. So the first thing he saw was, “How did you get me out?”
There are also two prisoners on death row, one called Liang Fai, a member of the Ye Jiqing criminal gang, who was sentenced to death for robbery; and one named Chan Han Siu, who was also a Guangdong Qianxi, who later gained identity in Hong Kong. The man was sentenced to death to a very “cup” and he was not a member of a criminal group and did not participate in two kidnappings, let alone a penny. It is because Zhang Zhang wants to buy explosives that he bought 800 kg of explosives for the district’s tens of thousands of dollars and smuggled them into Hong Kong, which has shocked the entire Hong Kong police force and has been sentenced to death for illegal trafficking in explosives. In one way or another, Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhu Zhang Zhu Zhang Zhu Zhang Zhu Zhu Zhang Zhu Zhu Zhang Zhang Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhang Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu has been so shocked by the Zhang police, sending a large police force to solve the case and has had to do with the discovery of the 800 kg of explosives in Hong Kong.
The first prisoner, Zhang Zhang Zhang, came to a large number of media outlets, both inside and outside the country, when he was finally taken to the scene of the crime. The vast majority of journalists did not get a picture of Zhang being forced to go to the scene of the crime because of the fact that, at the time of the first trial, the media had taken pictures of the inside of the court with a long-focal camera, and the court had placed a dark green mantle in the corridor on the same day. More than a year after the execution of the execution, there were suddenly reports in the Hong Kong press that Zhang was alive, hidden in a mysterious place, and even reports that he and his wife were seen in Thailand. There were also rumours of fire in and out of the country.
As a result, I was invited to cover the case in an interview for the sake of sound audio and video. It took me almost a year and a half to review more than 200 case files, to review all trial videos, and, with the help of Interpol, to visit Hong Kong and Macao three times, to visit all crime scenes, to interview police officers and senior police officers in Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong, and to visit the home of the main perpetrators, to learn about his growth and that of his associates, and then to interview the investigators, prosecutors and trial judges of the case, as well as to lastly guard their discipline and two successive lawyers. I also interviewed some of the perpetrators and their families, and went to Zhang Zhang Zhang’s home, Zhang Zhiqiang’s gambling hall in Macau, and interviewed people who had been in contact with Zhang Zhang Zhang Zhang in Macao. It is hoped that the last days of the next century will be recorded with first-hand information, and that much of it will be revealed for the first time, that it will truly record Zhang’s affairs and that it will reveal many of the mystery in people’s minds.
Of these curious myths, the most frequently asked was why Li Ka-cheng did not report it.
When the kidnapping took place, the kidnappers first asked Li Zazen to call his family, and Li Zazen said on the phone, “I have been kidnapped, never report it.” This is a request and a hint because he saw the kidnapper with a gun in his hand. LEE Ka-cheng naturally knows the danger to his son, because Hong Kong history has seen the untimely disappearance of Wang De Fai, the famous Asian woman-in-chief, after his husband, Wang De Fai, was abducted (which has also made her heart so “unnormal” as it subsequently became), which has emboldened all Hong Kong wealthiers to be no exception;
The kidnapper Zhang Zhang arrived at Lee Ka-cheng’s house that evening. Li Ka-cheng had a meeting in the field and immediately upon receiving a call from his family, he returned by helicopter to his home in Aspen Bay, Hong Kong (where I had also been in an interview and the yard was so big that he could stop the helicopter) and soon arrived.
In general cases of kidnapping, the kidnappers hide behind covert conditions for money, leaving the victims ‘ families afraid of anxiety. But Zhang went into Lee ‘ s house with a strong hand (a small clarification, as many media reports say that Zhang was carried with explosives, but Zhang was empty-handed, without a gun and his coat was open). This also enabled Li Ka-sheng to know for the first time who the son was in his hands and the conditions imposed by the kidnappers. Between money and security, the rich must choose security. Besides, Li Ka-sheng, the richest Chinese, has always trained this oldest son, Li Zawa-sun, to risk his son for money.
It was almost the first time that Li Ka-sheng had negotiated a ransom with the kidnapper Zhang and immediately contacted HSBC Bank to make cash withdrawals. Perhaps the reader will ask, how do you know that Li Ka-sheng and Zhang Zhang talked about the ransom?
Owing to the magnitude of the case, all of the cases were recorded in the trial. After Zhang Zhiqiang was arrested, he spoke in person in Guangzhou prison about the details of the process of talking about the ransom, and said it in a graphic way. I looked at the tape of the entire trial and knew the specific process of talking about the ransom, including what Li Ka-cheng had said. And that makes me see why the ransom was 1038 million? How did you get the 38 million? How did Zhang hand over the cash? What is the size of the $1038 million in cash? How many bags?
Beijing Watch invited me in 2015 to do two issues of this case, each for 40 minutes, about the process of writing it. They asked a very interesting question in the interview: how much is a billion HK$? In the show, they call it a HK$1,000 coin, about a gram of weight, and then calculate a billion HK$ to weigh a ton. This does not include the $38 million taken by Zhang Zhang on the first day, and a significant portion of the HK$500. In fact, it’s forgotten that the ransom is 1,638 million and there’s another kidnapping.
I don’t know how many ransoms Li Ka-cheng’s had, but I think I know how big they are. Zhang Zhang took 35 per cent of them (the court finally found HK$362 million), and the rest of the money was loaded with 40 plastic knitters and piled with a 40 square house. The money will be spent by Chen Ji Ho, who splits the stolen money, who can’t sleep all night, sitting next to this pile of money and sitting in his soul until dawn.
So Li Ka-shin wanted to give Zhang his money as soon as possible and redeemed his son and didn’t want to report it.
The fact that Li Ka-sheng did not report the truth was that he had “one promise, three exhortations” to the kidnappers. I’m sorry.
Because the money is cash and is an old, unsigned banknote, the Bank of Hong Kong raised it in three days, Zhang Zhiqiang came to collect the last money on the third day and, when he left, Li Ka Qiang said to Zhang — “One promise, three exhortations”. One of these “a promise” is a renewed commitment not to report. Zhang Zhiqiang also had a promise to Li Ka-sheng that he would never touch his family again. This commitment is important for Lee Ka-sheng.
Upon payment of the ransom, Zhang Zhiqiang personally sent Li Zawa Zheng to the Yidong Hotel in Hong Kong, opened by the Lee family. The truth about not reporting is that “one promise, three exhortations.” The content of the “One Promise” is more clear: when Zhang Zhiqiang arrived on the third day to transport his last sum of money, Li called on Zhiqiang, saying something about Zhang Zhang, who was already in a black Mercedes 600 car provided by his family. It’s something Li Ka-shin won’t talk about. Later, I found this in a series of videos that Zhang Zhiqiang left behind in the detention facility, to make it clear that there was a need to elaborate on the atmosphere and background, so I had to sell a “sun” here, so that I could take it slow when I went back and elaborate on the consequences.
Li Ka-Cheng’s failure to report the incident was widely discussed, but it was not known that the consequences of his failure to report the incident had at one time caused considerable confusion among the police and had led Zhang Zhang to fantasize about “freedom”.
After the investigation of the kidnapping, Zhang Zhiqiang told the police about the crime in the detention centre, and he was very pleased that the case had been cleared up by the police, except for the fact that Li Ka-cheng did not report it in Hong Kong.
He felt that there was no law and order in Hong Kong, and he was pleased to confess that he had been deported to Hong Kong. After Zhang Zhiqiang ‘ s statement, the police of Guangdong Province informed the Hong Kong police in a timely manner that, on the basis of Zhang Zhang ‘ s statement, the police had seized a Hong Kong villa that Zhang Zhang had purchased at over 40 million proceeds (which is now worth hundreds of millions).
However, the case did not exist in Hong Kong because of Li Ka-Cheng ‘ s insistence that he should not report the case, and since under Hong Kong law the victim did not report the case, Zhang Zhiqiang ‘ s wife, Lau Yanang, not only took the house back to the Hong Kong police on that basis, but also filed a complaint with a lawyer, which resulted in the court ruling that the Hong Kong police had paid Ryo Yingfang several million Hong Kong dollars in compensation.
Li Ka-sheng’s failure to report the incident made the Hong Kong police passive. For this reason, the Guangdong Public Security Department also sent Zhu Myung-jin, then Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigation, to Hong Kong to meet Li Ka-cheng, and as a result Zhu waited seven days in Hong Kong, Li Ka-cheng did not see him.
This makes Zhang Zhiqiang fantasies and persists in detention, where he says everything because he thinks he will be sent back for trial. He even told the interrogators, with a mainland Penal Code, that you could punish me on the mainland, but not in Hong Kong. Because he knew that he would be released as soon as he was returned to Hong Kong.
Of course, Lee Ka-sheng did not report the incident, which also put him under considerable social pressure. However, this is a stain on Lee Ka-sheng from the standpoint of upholding the rule of law in society. Moreover, he had a big taboo about not knowing what he had finally said to Zhang, which made Zhang feel that he had made a deal with Li Ka Chan. This is also why Li Ka-cheng later tried so hard not to let the inside of the case go. Of course, there was also a Hong Kong media that did not like Li Ka-cheng, who distorted his coverage.
So, the work I finished later, when I published it in a long report (up and down) by the People ‘ s Literary Press, was blocked for this reason, and only a few books went to the market without success.
This case is far beyond our imagination. More than 30 people, stories, scenarios, and the fate of money are very worthy of our reflection.
How the hell did you solve this case? How did Zhang Zhiqiang get caught in Guangdong Jiangmen?
Why didn’t you kidnap Ho?
How did Ye Jiqin, number two in the kidnapping case, get caught?
How do you share all that money? What is the fate of those who split money?
There’s really a fast-food guy out there. 15 million?
The defendant had a young girl, who was she? Why was she sentenced? Is she innocent?
What’s Zhang Zhang’s beautiful wife like?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I’m not just trying to tell a strange story. I would like to say that a different group of people, different lives, a story that may be far from us, perhaps close to us, because of the faces of many of them, and that you may have known each other in life, as if you were by your side, and that they came to this later because of the money.
But who needs money? Case number: YX01Br0aOel4WNZbm
I don’t know.
Keep your eyes on the road.
