Zhou Yongkang mistress profited by at least US$4.5m through affair with jailed Chinese security chief, says report
A 51-year-old businesswoman was a mistress of the jailed former security czar Zhou Yongkang and profited from their relationship by at least 30 million yuan (HK$35 million) by reselling illicit distribution rights to natural gas, according to an investigate report by a newspaper in China.
Li Xiaomei, who comes from Nanjing, has disappeared from public view since August 2013 and her case is now “going through the judicial process”, The Beijing News reported.
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Li was described as the least known and most mysterious of Zhou’s former mistresses, according to an unnamed source cited by the newspaper.
Zhou was jailed for life in June for corruption and abuse of power and is the most senior government official to fall during a massive crackdown on graft in China.
Li allegedly acquired the rights to sell a consignment of natural gas in 2004 with the help of Jiang Jiemin, a former senior energy industry official at the state-run oil company CNPC and a close ally of Zhou. The rights were obtained by breaching regulations, the report said.
She allegedly made a personal gain of more than 30 million yuan by reselling the rights, according to the report.
Li was also involved in the operation of several petrol stations and oil storage businesses, the article said.
Jiang later became the head of CNPC. He was jailed for 16 years in October on corruption charges.
Li first made contact with Zhou in 1991 when he was a vice general manger at China National Petroleum, according to the article. She asked him to approve a project, which he did, the report said.
They first met in person several years later when Zhou visited Japan and she went to greet him as she was an overseas student there, the article said.
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Li and her husband returned to China several years afterwards and Zhou had become Communist Party secretary in Sichuan province.
She based her business in the area and later moved to Beijing when Zhou became public security minister in 2002.
She became one of his mistresses in about 2003, according to the newspaper.
