Detained Red Roulette billionaire Duan Weihong resurfaces in China
- The businesswoman previously under investigation for her ties to disgraced Politburo member Sun Zhengcai has made a number of public appearances
- Duan’s ex-husband wrote about the couple’s experiences building their fortunes in China
Sun was party secretary of the southwestern municipality of Chongqing in September 2017 when he was removed from his post.
In his 2021 book Red Roulette, Shum wrote about the couple’s business dealings with Communist Party officials in Shunyi, home to Beijing Capital International Airport, when Sun was the district’s party boss.
Duan had not been seen in public in five years but on May 12, she visited a nursing home in Nanjing in the eastern province of Jiangsu, according to the home’s WeChat account.
It was the 56-year-old’s first known public appearance on the mainland since 2018.
Duan also attended a seminar on rural regeneration from late June to early July in Pingnan county, in the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, according to an article by the organiser of the event.
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Disgraced Communist Party star jailed for life
Duan began her business career in Tianjin in the 1990s, amassing a fortune through property development, hotel management and investments, which also led to close ties with senior Communist Party officials.
In a 2012 investigation into the wealth of former premier Wen Jiabao’s family, The New York Times said Duan played a central role as a middleman.
Two other businesswomen close to Sun, Liu Fengzhou and Huang Suzhi, were also detained during the probe against him, according to mainland-based news outlet Caixin.
But Sun’s career ended when he was suddenly investigated ahead of the 2017 party congress.
China’s top anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said Sun had inflated political ambitions and engaged in “conspiratorial activities”.
In May 2018, a court in Tianjin sentenced Sun to life in prison, where he remains.
Shum, Duan’s former husband, said that on the eve of Red Roulette’s publication, Duan phoned him asking him not to publish the memoir.
