A Chinese billionaire who has openly supported Beijing’s decision to impose its version of the national security law in Hong Kong talks money in the market, having sold billions of Chinese assets and snapped up properties in the United Kingdom and Australia in the past few years.

Cheung Chung-kiu, chairman of property developer CC Land, sold HK$15.9 billion (US$2.05 billion) worth of mainland Chinese assets over the past four years and purchased properties in the United Kingdom and Australia at a similar value, Apple Daily reported.

The deals included buying a 45-room mansion in Knightsbridge for £210 million (US$265.98 million) this year, making it the most expensive home ever sold in the UK. Cheung also invested in a £182 million (US$230.51 million) redevelopment project in a nearby neighbourhood — snapping up the Leadenhall Building, more widely known as the Cheesegrater — for £1.15 (US$1.46 billion). Apple Daily also cited company records that show CC Land has rental income from Melbourne in Australia.

Born in the Chinese city of Chongqing, the 56-year-old tycoon is dubbed as Chongqing’s Li Ka-shing after venturing into property development by building the city’s first large-scale residential project, known as California Garden. Cheung also has a penchant for dabbling in high-profile deals. In 2007, he purchased a traditional Chinese mansion in Hong Kong, but his decision to tear it down for a luxury residential project met with strong opposition and was subsequently banned by the Hong Kong government. In 2015, he bagged the monumental Ho Tung Gardens, formerly owned by Robert Hotung, the city’s richest man in the early 20th century, for HK$5.1 billion (US$658 million).

Apple Daily said he has kept a low profile following the abduction of another mainland-born billionaire, Xiao Jianhua, from a Hong Kong hotel in 2017 as part of an anti-corruption drive seen as an attempt by President Xi Jinping to assert his clout in a power struggle with former President Jiang Zemin.

(Next Magazine)

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