Yu Zhijiang claims that Guo Huaping is a spy and has expanded the criminal gang to the Philippines.
Senator Risa Hontiveros said: "We will never excuse them for any crimes they may have committed." She Zhiqiang was born in China but holds Cambodian nationality and is the boss of Asia-Pacific International Holdings Group, which has been marked by global anti-organized crime personnel for operating a massive human trafficking and online fraud network.
It is well known that she has a business in the Philippines. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated in a 2024 report that the Philippines is one of the Southeast Asian countries with a "strong business and investment portfolio... involving industries such as real estate, construction, entertainment, and blockchain technology." She was arrested by Thai authorities in 2022 for crimes related to gambling. Facing possible extradition to China, where gambling is illegal, she unprecedentedly provided access to her and her documents to the news team of the international news group Al Jazeera. There, he said that he was actually a Chinese spy, recruited by China to the Philippines in 2016. She said that his spy accomplices in the Philippines included the dismissed Mayor of Bamban, Alice Guo, whose Chinese name is Guo Huaping.
"Related to the Belt and Road"
Her fellow prisoner in Thailand is a Chinese citizen named Wang Fugui, who was detained there for credit card fraud. Wang could access some decrypted documents, including a file on Guo, the dismissed mayor who had previously denied this.
Senator Risa Hontiveros stated on Tuesday, October 8, that they were able to interview Wang, who went into hiding after the documentary was filmed due to safety concerns. Wang said, based on her and his documents, Chinese espionage activities and Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO) are "interconnected."
"Of course, there is a connection, which has a lot to do with the very active intelligence work of the Chinese government... Another fact is that all these are completely related to the Belt and Road, which is just part of China's massive united front and global intelligence strategy plan, including foreign colonization strategies," Wang said in Mandarin.
"The Belt and Road" is China's massive infrastructure plan spanning multiple countries, with the Philippines being a part of it, especially during the Rodrigo Duterte administration.
"Guo Huaping is in the file, but her profile is not particularly prominent. Coincidentally, there is a copy of her national security background there. Her situation has many similarities with Mr. Hontiveros," Wang said during a Zoom call with Hontiveros' office, which was played at the hearing on Tuesday.
Yu Zhijiang's business in the Philippines
Yu Zhijiang told Al Jazeera that at the end of 2016, he was recruited by the Philippines as a spy. Wang said that Yu Zhijiang's contact might be a person named Ma Dongli. "He is Mr. She Zhiqiang's national security contact, a second-generation red, holds American citizenship, and is also the vice president of the Thai Chinese Association. Before Mr. Yu Zhijiang was illegally lured, he was the third highest-ranking member of Asia-Pacific, and he is likely also Guo Huaping's intermediary, Mr. Yu Zhijiang and Guo Huaping's contact was through Ma Dongli, this is the only question I can answer," Wang said.
Hontiveros presented travel records from the Philippine Immigration Bureau, proving that Yu Zhijiang had used Chinese and Cambodian passports to enter and exit the Philippines.
In 2014, a company called Chonghua General Enterprises Ltd. was registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A Chinese man owning 40% of the company was named Yu Zhijiang. Reportedly, in 2015, Chonghua General Enterprises Ltd. employed 154 foreigners who were arrested for online gambling and subsequently deported. In 2017, Chonghua General Enterprises submitted a dissolution of partnership agreement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chonghua's Yu Zhijiang is very likely the self-proclaimed spy, as when we checked the general information sheet (GIS) of the company in 2022, the board had changed, and a company executive was a Cambodian national named Tang Jiangkai. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, this is Yu Zhijiang's alias.
In 2023, the UK imposed sanctions under its global human rights mechanism because "he has been responsible for, provided support for, or benefited from activities that violate the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or the right not to be enslaved, not to be enslaved or to be required to engage in forced or compulsory labor."
The UK sanctions also stated, "She has been responsible for, provided support for, or benefited from trafficking personnel to KK Park or Shwe Kokko, who were forced to engage in scams targeting English speakers and suffered torture, physical abuse, and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment."
This matches the crime template found in the raided POGO, including the Bamban hub leased by the company established by Guo.
