Ye-Xi Clique IV A - Lai Changxing 2.0

Ye Jianming and Xi's Political Warfare (2006-2018)

Ye Jianming came from a poor fishing village in Puchen County, Fujian. He never went to college and in 2004, at age 27, he competed for “Top 10 Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs of Nanping City” and failed to place. However, he was supported by unknown wealthy “friends” in a series of businesses that led to him winning an auction for the assets of Huaxin, the oil smuggling operation previously owned by Lai Changxing. The unlikelihood of Ye Jianming managing Lai’s oil smuggling racket was exposed in a series of interviews Ye conducted with Ji Tianqin and Han Wei from Caixing (note 1), Caixing is a leading source of finance and business news in China. In the interviews Ye changed his story about his acquisition of Lai’s oil trading assets numerous times before admitting that he needed help to understand how the business operated, which helps explain the delay between his ownership of the assets in 2006 and assumption of the business in 2009.