Family of Canadian held in China for six years without trial urges Ottawa to push for fair treatment

Li Yonghui has plenty of reasons not to have faith in China. His first business venture in the country resulted in him spending 100 days in jail, after he tangled with corrupt local officials. His second made him a multimillionaire, but ultimately ended the same way.

Mr. Li, a naturalized Canadian citizen whose family lives in Vancouver, has spent the past six years in pretrial detention in China – an almost unheard-of length of time. But Mr. Li remains confident that, given his day in court, he can clear his name, even in a system where more than 99 per cent of defendants are convicted.

“He still believes the legal system in China could deliver him justice, which is why he wants a trial or at least to be released on bail,” said Mr. Li’s son, Spencer. “He wants to do it by the book.”

Spencer Li expressed frustration that the Canadian authorities have not done more to push for fair treatment for his father, as his detention drags far beyond what is normal even in a system like China’s.

“We’re not asking the Canadian government to do some deal to get my dad out of there. We just want a trial,” Spencer Li said. “At some point you should be able to see and engage and say “This is not normal,” and maybe escalate it a bit more.”

At the time of his arrest in December, 2019, Mr. Li was one of the richest men in Hebei province, owning shopping malls, office buildings and the peer-to-peer lending giant Fincera, worth nearly $900-million at its height.

Peer-to-peer lending, or shadow finance, ballooned in the mid-2010s, opening up new sources of capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs across China, and providing attractive returns for investors and facilitators like Fincera. But the sector was plagued by speculative bubbles, scams and Ponzi schemes, and in 2016, the central authorities launched a concerted crackdown, shutting down hundreds of companies.

Fincera was one of only a few to survive the regulatory pressure, which Mr. Li saw as validating its business practices. But it faced pressure to downsize nonetheless from officials in Hebei who saw the sector as tainted and risky and didn’t “want anything to happen on their watch,” Spencer Li told The Globe and Mail in 2019.

His father responded with an aggressive publicity campaign more reminiscent of a political dissident than a businessman, leading rallies outside government offices with a megaphone and accusing Hebei regulators of corruption on social media.

As the walls closed in on Fincera, the company struggled to operate. Borrowers stopped paying, and investors withdrew money. When Fincera tried to sell assets to raise cash, it was prevented from doing so by local officials, the company said.

That December, police raided Fincera’s offices and arrested dozens of employees. Mr. Li was accused of “illegal fundraising” and mishandling public assets, which he denies. Spencer Li was hit with an exit ban that trapped him in China until earlier this year. But then he discovered the authorities had failed to renew the ban – whether this was because of an oversight or owing to another reason is unclear – and the son quickly fled back to Canada.

That development is just one of a series of bizarre and confusing aspects of the case that have left even those involved in it baffled.

Shortly after Mr. Li’s arrest, he faced pressure to “accept any responsibility, plead guilty and accept punishment,” he wrote in a recent letter from prison. He refused, saying he has “committed no wrongdoing and bears no responsibility.”

Since then, however, he has had barely any communication with the authorities, and the case has stalled. Suspects in China are supposed to be held for no longer than two months before trial, and a maximum of seven. Mr. Li has been held for almost six years – requiring the authorities in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, to repeatedly petition China’s Supreme Court to extend his detention.

At times, as is currently the case, the court has failed to do so in a timely fashion, meaning Mr. Li is technically being illegally detained. Other defendants have been released after themselves spending years without trial – often around the date that would mark the end of time served had they been given a formal conviction.

By failing to put Mr. Li on trial, prosecutors are shortchanging his alleged victims too: Investors in Fincera cannot get any payout until the case is complete.

From prison, Mr. Li has continued his campaign to shame the Hebei authorities, condemning them and his treatment on social-media accounts run by his family. While Spencer Li said some posts have been censored – likely for mentioning top leaders in posts by Mr. Li requesting their help – the accounts have not been deleted, suggesting the central government at least is not overly concerned with Mr. Li’s pronouncements.

In an interview from Vancouver, Spencer Li said his father just wants his day in court, even if that results in a conviction, a desire echoed by the whole family.

“Convict him if he is guilty, release him if he is not,” Mr. Li’s wife, Wang Yan, told The Globe. “Our request is simple.”

In a September letter to Spencer Li, Global Affairs Canada said that “with regards to your comments about the legality of your father’s extended trial period,” Ottawa “cannot interfere in the judicial affairs of another country.”

It added that a “diplomatic note was recently sent to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, in which the prolonged detention and lack of notification were raised.”

The families of other Canadians detained overseas have long complained that Ottawa approaches legal cases in authoritarian systems like China’s as if it is any other country, despite Global Affairs condemning Chinese human-rights abuses and warning Canadian travellers about the “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

At times, consular officials can seem under-informed about the cases they are handling: The letter to Spencer Li mentioned complications caused by “China’s position on dual nationality.” Li Yonghui only holds Canadian citizenship, his son said.

In a statement, Global Affairs Canada told The Globe officials were providing assistance “to the individual concerned and their family in Canada” but could not request special treatment.

With files from Nathan VanderKlippe