The rise and fall of a Belt and Road billionaire

In the mid-1990s, Ye Jianming had a simple job in a forest, or so his story goes. Twenty years later, he sat atop a $44 billion business empire. Today, he has vanished and, as that empire crumbles, is reportedly under investigation by the Chinese government.
How all that happened remains largely unknown. But one thing is clear: at its height, Ye’s company, CEFC China Energy, aligned itself so closely with the Chinese government that it was often hard to distinguish the two.
The young tycoon appeared to be China's unofficial energy envoy, meeting presidents across the globe and even becoming an adviser to a European government. In 2016, he ranked No. 2 on the Fortune magazine 40 Under 40 list.
But last November, Ye’s seemingly unstoppable rise came to a screeching halt. His undoing came after US prosecutors alleged that an NGO he funded had used its United Nations status to offer millions in bribes to African leaders, although he is not charged.
As that case plays out in a Manhattan courthouse, the world is offered a rare glimpse into the complex relations between private business and the Chinese state -- and with it, a cautionary tale of what happens when a Chinese company fails abroad.

Czech invasion

Ye came to international prominence in the summer of 2015, following an extraordinary buying spree in the Czech Republic.
As the chairman of CEFC China Energy, Ye snapped up the country's oldest football club, Slavia Praha; a brewery; a share of the Travel Service airline group; a publishing house; a neo-renaissance building; a stake in the investment bank J&T Finance Group; and a building in the Czech capital Prague, intended for use as the company's European headquarters.



Inside the Czech Republic, the acquisitions were greeted with bemusement: Why would an energy company want a brewery? And why was a Chinese company suddenly so welcome in a country that had, until recently, been hostile to China?
As with just about everything involving CEFC China Energy, the answers would eventually point to the Chinese government.
From its founding in 1993 until 2003, the Czech Republic was led by Vaclav Havel, a dissident turned elected politician, whose impassioned campaigning had helped topple the country's former communist government and usher in a new era of democracy. Throughout his decade in office, Havel made no attempt to hide his disdain for China's own communist rulers, regularly meeting with the Dalai Lama -- who is considered by China to be a dangerous separatist.
Relations changed with the election of Milos Zeman to the top office in 2013. Touted as the Czech Republic's first China-friendly president, Zeman was keen to facilitate increased trade between Beijing and Prague. The following year, a Czech entity would become the first wholly foreign-owned company to provide loans across China, a huge coup in the country's relatively untapped consumer credit market.
Ye sensed an opportunity.
He was quietly made a special economic adviser to Zeman, something that would only be announced six months after the fact. Miroslav Kalousek, a Czech opposition MP, says he considers Ye’s role in his country’s government as "scandalous and a security risk."
Shortly after Ye's appointment came his high-profile splurge. The deals made no commercial sense, says Martin Hala, a leading Czech academic in Chinese studies. But they sent a clear message from Beijing to the international community that China now had a firm friend in Europe.
That was important. Chinese President Xi Jinping's flagship Belt and Road initiative aims to export Chinese commerce, goods and influence across the globe. A foothold in the Czech Republic gave China a gateway to Europe, and a valuable political ally within the European Union, Beijing's largest trading partner.
 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, second from right, with Czech President Milos Zeman, third from left, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in September, 2015. Ye Jianming is on the far left. Lucie Mikolaskova (CTK via AP Images)
Stephen Platt, an American historian and professor of Chinese history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says there is a long history of private businessmen advancing the influence of their country abroad, dating back to the British East India Company and the cotton and silk traders who sparked the Opium Wars in China. "It takes the risk and financial burden off the Chinese government," he says. "If the companies go bankrupt that's their problem and (in the meantime) the government can take advantage of (them) spreading a positive view of China and increasing China's influence."
When Zeman met with Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2015, Ye was photographed with both presidents. His proximity to the center of Chinese power had never looked stronger.