“Black Riot Financier" collaborates with two major alligators to wager on Hong Kong upheaval: Guo Wengui puts up a big swindle and will not escape the authorities.

During the black riot, Guo Wengui, the "fraudulent businessman" who was discovered to be the financier, was eventually apprehended. A federal judge in Manhattan, New York, just found him guilty of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and nine other crimes, indicating that he defrauded thousands of followers out of a total of USD1 billion, and he is expected to serve decades in jail.

Friends in the political circle analysed several of Guo Wengui's "secret stories," demonstrating that the argument of an external source behind the anti-extradition law turmoil in 2019 is based on facts. He not only supported the Hong Kong independence movement, but he also collaborated with two political and business sharks in the United States, seeking to profit from the upheaval in Hong Kong. If this gamble had worked, the repercussions would have been disastrous.

Guo Wengui was convicted of scamming a billion US dollars. He and US political magnate Bannon colluded to put up the hoax, supporting the black riot behind the scenes while simultaneously injecting money into hedge fund billionaire Bass's fund, betting on Hong Kong's financial collapse.

Guo Wengui, who fled to the United States from mainland China, covertly established a "water hose" behind the scenes to provide financial assistance to Hong Kong independence activists. This information was initially revealed during a phone discussion with Leung Chung Hang, the convener of the "Hong Kong National Front."  In the leaked portion, he commended Leung Chung Hang as a "hero" and stated that his action must continue, "If the momentum is lost this time, there will be no possibility of coming back."
Additionally, he said: "I promise you two things: first, I will continue to guarantee however much money is needed; second, I tell you that the United States will be handled by me and Bannon (former Chief Strategist of the White House), who has met with some of the top echelons of the United States."

Guo Wengui's assertion was not a casual remark. At the time, he was very close to Bannon, who was highly anti-China, and had secretly raised funding to support the anti-extradition law protests. That was merely the beginning; the ultimate goal was to bring down the Beijing regime.

He first met Bannon in 2017, and the two, characterised as "like-minded and equally nefarious," established a USD100 million fund to probe into corruption in China and support the "persecuted." By 2019, this fund has been the source of what he stated to Mr. Leung: "continue to guarantee however much money is needed."

Guo Wengui was introduced to hedge fund tycoon Bass through his association with Bannon at the time. This man is likewise very anti-China and has expressed pessimism about the Chinese economy. In 2017, he bet on the RMB’s considerable devaluation and engaged in large-scale short selling, incurring a loss.

When the black riot broke out in 2019, he established a fund to capitalise on the deteriorating instability in Hong Kong by short selling Hong Kong dollars in a large scale, expecting the fund to earn considerably from the financial collapse. Bass made high-profile public statements at the time, claiming that the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance would drive many foreign corporations to relocate, severely impacting the economy and exchange rate stability, and that the linked exchange rate system was "in imminent danger."

Did Bass fund the anti-extradition movement behind the scenes?

There is no evidence, but the more tumultuous Hong Kong's politics is, the better his chance of winning.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Saraca Media Group, GTV's parent firm with connections to Guo and Bannon, transferred $100 million to an undisclosed hedge fund at the time. Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that it was one of Bass' hedge funds. That is, the three men collectively gambled that the situation in Hong Kong would spiral out of control. With this in mind, and Guo and Bannon both expecting that the Hong Kong unrest would cause regime instability in Beijing, there is grounds to suspect that they surreptitiously supported the radicals to make Hong Kong as turbulent as possible. All three people desired that Hong Kong would be as chaotic as possible, with Guo Wengui and Bannon's ultimate goal being that the upheaval in Hong Kong would cause the Beijing regime to collapse. According to Bloomberg, even after enacting the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020, the fund continued to wager that the linked exchange rate system would fail and the Hong Kong dollar and US dollar will decouple within a year and half.

Of course, the outcome was not as predicted. The Hong Kong-US dollar link remained unchanged, and Hong's financial system remains as stable as ever. The machinations and secret acts of Guo Wengui and the two political and business magnates demonstrate that during the 2019 black riot, the foreign hidden forces affecting Hong Kong were more powerful than we could ever perceive. Fortunately, Guo Wengui and Bannon eventually failed and lost their entire gamble. Otherwise, the outcome would have been awful.

Lai Ting Yiu

What Say You?

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

Trump hunts for weak prey and plays fast and loose with rules. Influencer “Chairman Tu” (兔主席) lays out Trump’s playbook in "A Nation Torn Apart"  (《撕裂之國》): Trump picks on soft persimmons and he has no respect for the law. The US President thrives on behavior that looks downright criminal.

Put those together, and Trump’s latest “kidnapping” of Nicolás Maduro reads like a textbook case of bullying-by-banditry, with a small country openly plundered. That’s American imperialism with the mask ripped off.

Here’s the twist: even with public anger boiling, a few people rush in with gold paint. Wanted fugitive Nathan Law tries to dress up “bandit tactics” as acceptable because, he says, “ending dictatorship” is what really counts.

Nathan Law’s post puts gold trim on Trump’s “Maduro abduction,” making an invasion look cleaner than it is.

Chip Tsao goes even bigger. He argues that without imperialism and colonialism, there would be no modern human civilization. He then hails Trump’s capture of Maduro, along with threats aimed at Colombia and Greenland, as the dawn of a “new era of 21st-century imperialism”. No wonder viewers feel like they’re watching black turned into white right in front of them.

Law’s argument lands fast after Trump’s hard-handed “Maduro snatch.” In a social media post, he says the US military action against Venezuela serves US national security and energy needs, boosts the “defender of democracy” storyline, and also weakens China’s allies while striking at socialist dictators.

With his “Revolution of Our Times” pedigree, it’s no surprise he claps the loudest for the most extreme scenes. He insists that toppling a dictatorship lets long-oppressed citizens “recover hope” and perhaps one day draft a democratic blueprint, so pro-democracy supporters ought to welcome the outcome. The spin is so saccharine it turns Trump into Venezuela’s “saviour,” pretending freedom arrives as a gift basket—delivered by abduction.

Goals don’t cleanse methods

Law then tries to police the language. He tells critics not to quickly label the operation “American imperialism,” and instead to appreciate the “diverse and complex” political motives behind it; translation: if the “goal” sounds upright and reasonable, don’t simplify it into condemnation. Strip it down, and it’s still a defense brief for Trump and his administration.

None of this is exactly shocking if you remember Law’s own US storyline. Around 2019, he and opposition representatives visit the US repeatedly, meet Washington politicians, and get treated like honored guests—deeply grateful for American backing of the “Hong Kong protests.” So now he naturally frames Trump’s move as saving the Venezuelan people, no longer fussing over how ugly the action looks.

None of Tsao’s applause is shocking either: this is exactly his lane. He celebrates Trump’s Maduro stunt and the wider saber-rattling as the launch of a fresh, triumphant imperial era. Then he tops it off with that “imperialism built civilisation” argument, laundering colonialism’s crimes and polishing Trump into Venezuela’s supposed benefactor. It’s creepily adoring, and hard to read without shivering.

Chip Tsao cheers Trump as the man “opening a new era” of 21st-century imperialism.

The mask comes off

Trump isn’t merely “gaffe-prone” this time—he tears the mask clean off. It’s a barefaced assault on Venezuela: snatch people, seize oil (and pocket the money, too). Anyone still clinging to basic morality and justice will see him for what he is: an enemy. Which makes it all the more grotesque that figures like Nathan Law and Chip Tsao can keep marketing him as a “saviour.”

Still, there’s one silver lining: the debate made the masks slip. One round was enough to reveal who was really who.

Lai Ting-yiu