Jailed former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho acted as go-between for former UNGA chief to meet Xi Jinping, according to documents filed for his appeal
- Ho tried to set up meeting between Ugandan Sam Kutesa and Xi, though Kutesa did not ultimately meet the Chinese president on visit to Beijing
- Former home affairs secretary was jailed in New York for three years in March after being found guilty of offering US$2.9 million in bribes to Kutesa and two others
Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping acted as go-between for a former chief of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to meet President Xi Jinping in 2015, according to documents filed to a US appeal court.
The private exchanges between Ho and Sam Kutesa, the current foreign minister of Uganda, who chaired the global body from 2014 to 2015, was revealed in Ho’s appeal application on Thursday to overturn his conviction in a multimillion-dollar bribery case involving top officials in Chad and Uganda.
The revelation showed the efforts of Ho, 69, and his think tank China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC) to build networks at the UN, and advance China’s geopolitical strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative.
He is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in the New York and could be released as early as June next year.
