Cornucopia

by John Kinsella

  It was an attempt by the aging dictator, whose authority had been undermined by the Great Famine of the 1950s, to reassert control over the party by destroying his real or imagined enemies.

  In June 1966, after the party urged the masses to ‘clear away the evil habits of the old society’ by launching an all-out assault on ‘monsters and demons’. Heeding the call of the party, Chinese students sprung into action, setting up Red Guard divisions in schools and universities across the country and by August destruction raged as the Red Guards were urged to destroy the ‘four olds’: old ideas, old customs, old habits and old culture. Churches, temples, libraries, shops and homes were ransacked or destroyed as gangs of youths wearing red armbands and military fatigues roamed the streets attacking the bourgeois officials, teachers and intellectuals.

  The victims were publicly humiliated, beaten and even murdered. In Beijing nearly two thousand people lost their lives in August and September of that year, as the student led red terror spread and China was plunged into a state of civil war, as rival factions fought in towns and cities across the country.

  It was two years before Mao realised his revolution had got out of control and to rein in the violence millions of young men and women were sent to the countryside for re-education and the army sent in to restore order. The violence finally ended 1971 after a huge loss of life and the destruction of cultural monuments. In all as many as two million Chinese died, many of them when the army moved in to restore order.

  Even Deng Xiaoping was publicly humiliated, and Xi Zhongxun, the father of China’s incumbent president, Xi Jinping, was beaten and sent into exile.

  With Mao’s death in September 1976, the Cultural Revolution finally came end and his widow, Jiang Qing, part of the Gang of Four, was publicly tried for masterminding the chaos and sentenced to death, though this was later reduced to life in prison.

  CROWNING GLORY

  All of a sudden Pat found himself being courted by Downing Street. It all started with a call from a secretary at the British Embassy in Hong Kong with an invitation to lunch from the Ambassador.

  Peter Devillier was a nice enough fellow whom Pat had shaken hands with and even exchanged small talk on a number of occasions: cocktail parties and the like, at different do’s and events like the Queens birthday, when expats and local dignitaries were the ambassador’s guests.

  Pat had made the front pages of the local press during the year, the most remarkable being that in the South China Post with the sensationally front page headline: ‘Hong Kong banker missing in jungle’.

  Pat’s fortunes had dramatically improved since the failed grab by City & Colonial of INI Bank Hong Kong, an event that had consolidated of his position. His victory was transformed into a triumphant reversal of roles with the transfer of INI London’s City headquarters to the former colony following the acquisition of City & Colonial’s holding by the Wu family holding.

  Fate had put Kennedy on a conveyor that had elevated him to a high, but mostly symbolic position as the head of INI, after Michael Fitzwilliams, part of the establishment’s traditional elite, had lost control in an increasingly unpredictably and complex world, where globalisation and growing variables dictated events.

  As Pat was shown into the official reception room he surprised by the presence of the Irish Ambassador, Sean Reilly, and immediately suspected some kind of a plot. However, his fear was transformed into curiosity when Devillier beating about the bush, spoke of the planned state visit to London of the Chinese president, vaguely hinting at the Wu family’s links to Xi Jinping’s extended family.

  Irritated by his counterpart’s dithering Reilly cut in, suggesting Kennedy could help Irish interests by assisting the ambassador.

  Pat, realizing what was on Devillier’s mind, had difficulty in retaining his amusement in the face of such extraordinary chutzpah, however he was quick to realise it was a wonderful opportunity to advance his own interests.

  “A spy?” said Pat.

  “No, no, Pat,” spluttered Reilly.

  Devillier smiled and lifted his hand, “Of course not. We’re not looking for intelligence. We’re trying to cement relations with Beijing, nothing more. But Her Majesty’s government would be very generous if you could help Mr Kennedy.”

  Pat smiled, it was ridiculous to think a man of his wealth could be bought.

  “A knighthood?” he ventured.

  “That would be a little premature,” replied Devillier with a sad condescending smile. Then brightening up added: “On the other hand we could arrange an invitation to the Guildhall luncheon in honour of President Xi Jinping.”

  “The Guildhall? I’ve been there more times than I can remember,” Pat announced inferring interest providing the conditions were sufficiently attractive.

  Devillier frowned, “I see.”

  “What about meeting the Queen,” said Pat amused at the idea of bring received at Buckingham Palace.

  “The state dinner?”

  “Yes.

  “That might be a little difficult.”

  “My father-in-law knew Xi’s father. I believe there are even some business links with his family,” Pat said treading carefully.

  “Yes, of course,” said Devillier well aware of those facts … and more.

  The ambassador was an old China hand and knew better than any London spin doctor the workings of guanxi, where the family members of the powerful were known to be potential tools of influence, and used in the hope of reaching the seat of power.

  “I’ll see what we can do Pat,” he replied slipping into first name terms and holding out his hand to Kennedy.

  Royal Banquet with Chinese President Xi Jinping

  Pat accepted Devillier’s hand to the evident relief of Reilly, who thanks to the ambassador was piggybacking into hi-tech electronics in nearby Shenzhen.

  In effect the Wu’s had long established links with the Chinese leader’s extended family’s discrete business interests in Hong Kong in sectors as varied as rare earths, real estate and telecommunications.

  The government in London was seeking to expand UK trade with China by forging links with its powerful ruling families, something that was easier said than done given the Chinese government’s crackdown on corruption and graft.

  Pat found himself in a rare position with his Chinese family’s links to Red Royalty, the children and grandchildren of revolutionaries who had marched with Mao Zedong on his long road to power: princelings, the progeniture of the top families that swayed influence in politics and business.

  Reilly spoke of a British businessman married to Xi’s niece who had been of considerable use in building contacts, but since Xi had become President of the People’s Republic. He had been an excellent promoter of Anglo-Chinese relations, his influence could be measured after he had obtained the use of The Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square to host a private dinner for Chinese and Western businessmen.

  But they could not overplay their hand and compromise their man, which is where Pat came in.

  Though Pat’s connections were not of the same order they were more enduring and more effective since the niece’s husband had been distanced from external contacts when Xi came to power for reasons of state. China could not afford a scandal that would embarrass its president.

  Pat was a banker and as such navigated his way through the world of business with a privileged network of contacts, including those of the Wu family, which included Xi’s brother-in-law, also Wu, part of Lili’s enlarged family.

  The brother-in-law, Wu Xiao Long, had extensive interests in telecommunications technology as well as business links to China’s state owned telecoms company, the world’s biggest.

  Lili’s grandfather had known Xi’s, who had been instrumental in persuading Deng Xiaoping create China’s first SAR in Shenzhen, launching China on its astonishing flight to modernity when he declared: ‘Let a part of the population get rich first’ and ‘To get rich is glorious’.

  The Chinese presid
ent’s sister made her first investment in Hong Kong twenty five years earlier: an appartment, the cost of which was the equivalent to one thousand years the average Chinese salary at that time. She established Hong Kong residency and with her husband went on to build a vast business and property fortune in the colony and Shenzhen.

  Since ancient times it had been a Chinese tradition for members of the ruling elite to transform political power into personal wealth and they continued to do so, providing family members with a leg up into banking, finance and industry. It confirmed the Chinese saying that went back to a certain Xu Xun, a Taoist priest who lived in the third century AD: (when a man gets to high places) his whole family, including even their chickens and dogs, ascended to heaven together with him.

  Amongst those who heeded Deng’s words was Lili’s family, investing initially in textiles and then electronics in the SAR, and as always in such families they distributed the roles, certain making their careers in politics and government, as had Lili’s father in Canton, and others in business like her paternal uncle.

  A week later Pat was summoned to the Embassy where he received from the hands of the ambassador a Royal convocation for he and his wife to attend the state banquet to be held at Buckingham Palace in honour of the Chinese president. Pat could scarcely conceal his joy. His mother would have swooned at the idea: her son, a simple lad from Limerick was being given the extraordinary honour of being invited to a state banquet given for Xi Jinping the President of the People’s Republic of China by the Queen of England.

  *

  When the great day arrived Pat and Lili found themselves amongst a dazzling collection of guests: royalty, diplomats, ministers, politicians and a handful of celebrities, stars and outstanding business personalities.

  At the glittering banquet Pat and Lili were seated between high level government officials and representatives of the Chinese business world; members of President Xi’s delegation.

  It was part of the Chinese President’s four day state visit to the UK, which according to some was supposed to open a golden era in London’s long-standing and often controversial relations with Beijing.

  The Wu’s enjoyed connections with Xi’s sister thanks to her husband, also a Wu. In this way Lili had met Peng Liyuan, the wife of Xi Jinping, on several occasions. Peng, his second wife, often compared to France’s former first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy - Nicholas Sarkozy’s French-Italian wife, was a national star. Peng, who according to the Chinese government had been brought up in abject poverty, had risen to fame as singer. After starting out as member of a local choral troupe in the People’s Liberation Army, at the age of eighteen, she became a popular star, singing in the Chinese New Year Gala and travelling the country in the green army uniform of the People’s Army.

  Peng Liyuan’s popularity as a singer continued and her Red Army patriotic style records and videos were still top sellers, which earned her the rank of major general.

  Behind the royal flim-flam of the state visit was a list of multi-billion-pound deals, notably the construction of nuclear power stations: Hinkley Point in Somerset, Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex, designed to replace the UK’s aging plants, in partnership with France’s EDF.

  It was a significant victory for China to see its president hailed by British crowds as he rode beside the Queen of England in the golden state coach towards Buckingham Palace. For the occasion The Mall was decorated with a dazzling display of China’s red flags, a triumph for the Middle Kingdom one hundred years after its humiliating defeat at the hands of Queen Victoria’s army and Imperial Britain’s allies and the barbaric sack of Pekin.

  Xi was given the works with all the pomp and circumstance that only British royalty could offer, it was such that a casual Chinese observer could have mistakenly thought that an Emperor still sat on the throne of the Middle Kingdom … chosen by heaven.

  Amongst those who waited in the palace for the arrival of the imperial couple was Pat Kennedy, whose mind was now firmly set on a knighthood.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  This book could not have been written without the data and information published on the Internet and in the daily press collected over a period of nine years starting when the very first signs of the sub-prime, sovereign, euro, debt crises appeared in early 2007. I have trawled numerous British, Irish, US, Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese, Israeli newspapers, news blogs and specialist Internet sites, and books (authors’ cited). And of course Wikipedia.

  During this period I have collected information during my visits to the USA, China, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia, Macau, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Thailand, Cambodia, Libya, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, Mali, Morocco, Mexico, the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy. To this I have added my experience in other parts of the world, notably Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Burma, Switzerland, Algeria, Russia, Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltic Countries, Poland, Hungary, the countries of ex-Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Turkmenistan, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Egypt, the Caribbean, Central and South America.

  I present my thanks and excuses to all the willing and unwilling contributors to the information included in this book, the information from this information world. I have tried to verify the fictitious facts but this is an impossible task. In my humble opinion most data reflects real events and the opinions of the vast majority of persons affected directly or indirectly by the multiple crises.

  The is a story, a novelised account of the events leading up to and relating to political and economic events, where the fictitious characters are fictitious, and where the real characters such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are real.

  Readers will forgive me if I have rearranged the dates of some factual events to fit in with the narrative and its factious characters.

  The stories of 2000, 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 are recounted in the other tomes of The Turning Point saga.

  With my very sincere thanks to all contributors,

  direct and indirect, knowing and unknowing,

  willing and unwilling

  John Francis Kinsella, Paris, May 2016

  Other books by the author

  Fiction

  Borneo Pulp

  Offshore Islands

  The Legacy of Solomon

  The Prism

  The Lost Forest

  Death of a Financier

  The Turning Point 2007-2008

  The Plan 2009-2010

  Non-Fiction

  An Introduction to Early

  20th Century Chinese Literature

  Translations

  Le Point de Non Retour

  The Sorrow of Europe

  The Temple of Solomon

  Jean Sibelius - A biography

  Understanding Architecture

  L’Île de l’Ouest