In dealing with such sums, if anyone could be expected to have been alert to the primacy of American banking laws, and the proverb “when in Rome do as the Romans do”, it should have been someone whose CV reads: former secretary for home affairs in the administrations of Tung Chee-hwa and Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, member of China’s national political advisory body, member of the HKSAR Preparatory Committee, professor of eye surgery at Chinese University. We trust Ho can refute the charges and uphold his reputation at home and abroad.

A measure of the reaction from mainland media and netizens is that the arrest was linked to news of an oil supply deal between the Shanghai energy company and Russia’s state-owned petroleum company, and to US sensitivity about Russian geopolitical rivalry.

That said, Ho’s predicament has wider implications. It is a reminder to Chinese companies and businessmen as they break out of the domestic market and go abroad, that they and their agents must be prepared to abide by the rules of foreign markets and financial networks if they are to avoid pitfalls, just as foreign companies have had to learn some painful lessons about doing business in China. Indeed, analysts say that with more outward-bound investment, Chinese firms will become a focus for anti-corruption law enforcement globally as regulators became more familiar with Chinese business practices.