Peter an ex-colleague and long-time friend went to China in early December to meet with some of the firm's clients. The firm only did this once before, and I had been the one visiting China. In 2018 we had to shut down our Hong Kong "one-man" office because our representative left prematurely due to a family emergency. After that, the firm had a hard time finding a replacement. Anyway, before the replacement could fly out covid shut the place down.
Peter left for a two-week visit to meet about 100 clients. Since I had been the last one doing this trip, he called to get some local colour. The only advice I gave him was to not travel with any documents, authorities were always curious. Everything should be digital.
Just as Peter was to fly home, the authorities found "irregularity with his visa". Cutting to the chase, last night Peter landed at Heathrow. Peter had been detained for four days.
Today, Peter called to give me the lowdown. It seems that the Chinese communist party has begun a campaign to shame Chinese nationals who have money abroad. Peter told me he had extensive notes on each client's portfolio actions for 2024, but because he had some free time between his meetings, he copied everything to the client's personal data sheet, which exists only on the cloud. He had no notes about clients just a bunch of miscellaneous business cards from non-clients (including a taxi driver) these were examined by the Chinese police. Because the firm uses VPN access to the cloud there was no client data on his computer. Peter even recognized that it was only because the internet was so rapid that he kept no notes on his computer, and like every financial consultant, he used the hotel's business centres' shredder to ensure that all his paper notes were destroyed. That has nothing to do with China and everything to do with sound business practices.
Anyway, they never looked at his computer (the representative of the Embassy was in the meeting room). Peter said that the whole thing was both unnerving and banal. He was in a hotel suite on the outskirts of Beijing and could get out and walk around but they had his passport. He was questioned twice by police officers, the first time, they only spoke Chinese (strange) which made the meeting short. Obviously, Peter and his firm were in contact with the British embassy, and eventually, everything was resolved. In the end, it was deemed that it was an "administrative error" on the part of the Chinese Embassy in London (maybe it was???).
Anyway, Peter's family were overjoyed to welcome him last night. Peter even made a joke about his detention, probably funnier now than then!
.
Comments