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Wang Zhenhua has been accused of molesting a nine-year-old girl. Photo: Edward Wong

Chinese property tycoon Wang Zhenhua ‘took children as his playthings’, top legal affairs agency says

  • Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission pulls no punches in its condemnation of Future Land Development chairman, despite him not being charged
  • Businessman is being detained in Shanghai in connection with allegations of child molestation

China’s top political body responsible for law and order said on Saturday that Wang Zhenhua, the billionaire property tycoon accused of molesting a nine-year-old girl, “took children as his playthings” and vowed to bring him and anyone else involved in the case to justice.

Wang, the 57-year-old chairman of Hong Kong-listed property developer Future Land Development, was detained on Monday after a woman complained he had sexually assaulted her daughter in a Shanghai hotel on June 29, police in the city said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors in Shanghai’s Putuo district said on Friday they were supervising the police investigation to ensure it was “proper and thorough”.

Although Wang has not been formally charged or arrested he is being held under criminal detention, police said.

Wang has been detained by police in Shanghai. Photo: Edward Wong

That detail appears to be of little concern to the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, however, which said in a commentary on social media that: “Wang, who is a successful businessman, a philanthropist, a national model worker, took children as his plaything. This is so dirty and obscene.”

It went on to say that it would conduct a full investigation and ensure that all those responsible were brought to justice.

Millions of children in China ‘victims of sexual assault’

Putuo police said that a woman, identified only by her surname Zhou, had also been detained in connection with the case after handing herself in on Tuesday. She is alleged to have taken the child to the hotel in Shanghai from her home in neighbouring Jiangsu province.

The allegations against Wang were first published by Shanghai newspaper Xinmin Evening News on Wednesday.

Another company set up and chaired by Wang, Seazen Holdings, on Friday said it was “deeply sorry” for what happened to the alleged victim and her family.

“We felt deeply worried, shocked and upset that it was our founder who started this storm,” it said.

Future Land shares in a record one-day plunge after founder’s arrest

Also on Friday, China’s state broadcaster CCTV appealed for a full investigation to be carried out into the allegations in a 20-minute programme dedicated to the case.

Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said in a commentary on Thursday that Wang had not lived up to his social responsibility.

“Businessmen in China are tide players of the socialistic market economy and have contributed to our economic growth,” it said.

“Because of this, society has given them big honours but also has high expectations of them.”

US billionaire accused of molesting young girls arrested in New York

Li Ying, a Beijing-based lawyer who specialises in women and children’s rights, said the allegations against Wang were “very serious”.

Crimes against women and children deserved the “attention of the whole of society” and should be subject to “stringent legislation and implementation of the law”, she said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Billionaire Wang ‘took children as his playthings’
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