Video | Plug pulled on US interview with wanted Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui
‘China using terror tactics against my family’, businessman claims
A highly anticipated interview in which a wanted tycoon said Chinese law enforcement authorities were harassing him and his family as part of a corruption cover up was interrupted by the broadcaster on Wednesday, sparking intense speculation on social media.
Washington DC-based Voice of America cut the interview short owing to “pressure from various parties”, VOA interviewee Guo Wengui, who is subject to an Interpol “red notice”, said in a video posted on his Twitter feed following the VOA interview.
Government bodies in the US and China have both been blamed by some social media commentators for the abrupt ending, and differing explanations from the parties involved in the interview have left the question open.
The South China Morning Post reported earlier on Wednesday that Interpol issued a red notice for Guo at China’s request.
Sources briefed on the notice said Guo, who has close ties to disgraced former state security vice-minister Ma Jian, was suspected of giving Ma 60 million yuan in bribes. Ma is under investigation for corruption.
Guo said he met officials from China’s graft-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission in London last year about Ma’s case, adding that facts of the case differed from the allegations in the notice to Interpol.
He also rejected claims of corruption against him.