The company said in an exchange filing late on Thursday that Chengdu Le Parc in the capital of southwestern Sichuan province was sold to Hong Kong-listed Yuzhou Group and Chengdu Ruizhou, giving it an estimated gain of HK$3.81 billion (US$492 million). The Chengdu project has 23,253 residential and commercial units, of which 16,503 units or 70.1 per cent have been sold.

The sale of the Chengdu project is the company’s latest asset disposal in mainland China and comes at a time when tensions between the US and China have been escalating. In October, CK Asset sold a 1.53 million square feet development in the Xigang district of Dalian for 4 billion yuan (US$571 million). The company acquired the right to develop the land for 1.9 billion yuan in 2011.

In the past, the decision of the group to sell assets in China was criticised by mainland media as an indication of Li’s view of the country’s economy just when Beijing was facing a slowing growth. The latest sale comes in the wake of a Washington initiative to take punitive actions toward Chinese officials deemed to have eroded Hong Kong’s freedoms.