One Billion Customers - James McGregor [57]
Lai was enterprising in helping his friends in government and the police get ahead. When Zhuang Rushun was a mere traffic cop in Shishi, Lai imported and donated satellite telephone equipment that Officer Zhuang used to set up a traffic monitoring system that became a national model. A few years later Zhuang had risen to become the second in command of the Public Security Bureau of Fujian province and one of Lai’s closest friends.
One of Lai’s most important associates was Yang Qianxian, the fastest-rising official in local customs. Yang had started work in the Xiamen Department of Customs in 1980 and by age thirty was head of the investigation department. By age forty, he was appointed chief of Xiamen customs and Communist Party secretary for the organization, making him the youngest customs director in China. Under his leadership Xiamen earned regular awards for being one of the best customs branches in China. Yang first met Lai in 1989 when Lai was running his textile machinery factory in Shishi. At the time he dismissed Lai as a nobody. But Lai relentlessly cultivated him. In 1993, Lai donated $12,000 to Yang to help him spread gifts around the system so he could become the director of Xiamen customs when the position became vacant. When Yang’s father died, Lai called immediately and offered to go to Yang’s hometown to help with the funeral arrangements. He later supplied Yang with a Lexus to drive, as well as a Huanan tiger skin worth $100,000 to hang on his wall at home. He introduced Yang to the woman who became his mistress and then supplied the couple with a house when she became pregnant with Yang’s son.
Some of the Red Mansion’s guests could be troublesome. Lan Fu, the vice-mayor of Xiamen, was an inveterate gambler and was always asking Lai to stake him for losses. Lai purchased a $150,000 apartment for Lan’s mother in Tianjin, a $350,000 house in Australia for Lan’s son, and he covered the boy’s private school tuition in Singapore and Australia.
Lai’s friendships reached high into the government ranks. One of the most important and frequent visitors to the Red Mansion was Vice-Minister Li Jizhou of the Public Security Bureau, who was in charge of border security and antismuggling efforts for the entire country. Lai first met Li Jizhou in the late 1980s when Lai was selling electronics from his shop in the police-owned hotel in Shishi. Over the years, they dined and socialized together whenever Vice-Minister Li was in Xiamen or Lai was in Beijing, where he always stayed in the presidential suite of the Palace Hotel, a five-star hotel then owned by the Chinese military. Vice-Minister Li dubbed Lai “the Detective” because Lai always had the freshest and most accurate political gossip, not only about who was doing what to whom in Fujian, but also in the leadership circles in Beijing. One day Li mentioned that his wife, Cheng Xinlian, had retired from her government job. Lai asked why didn’t she consider doing business?
“What can Cheng Xinlian do? She can’t do anything,” Li said.
“I can help her do business,” Lai answered.
Within a month, Lai had given $120,000 to Ms. Cheng and her friend, Liu Yan, wife of another Public Security Bureau official, to open a restaurant. Two years later, in 1996, Ms. Cheng told Lai that her daughter, Li Qian, wasn’t doing very well in the United States. She was having trouble getting a green card and keeping a steady job. Lai wired $500,000 into Li Qian’s California bank account.
Over time Lai earned a reputation as a sincere and simple person who offered discreet benefits and asked for little in return. He was a model citizen and celebrated Fujian success story.
Oil, Autos, and Cigarettes
Or was he? Prosecutors tell a different story. They say Lai ran a very aggressive family-managed smuggling operation that partnered with all levels of the Chinese government and military. It was a business that was based on Lai’s great strength as a relationship builder