Guo Wengui: How a Chinese tycoon built a pro-Trump money machine

When Chinese tycoon and notable dissident Guo Wengui was charged with masterminding a $1bn fraud, it was only the latest chapter in the saga of a man with connections to powerful people in China, the US and the UK. In early June 2020, at the tail end of the city's first Covid lockdown, a fleet of small planes baffled New Yorkers. They circled overhead towing banners that read: "Congratulations to the New Federal State of China" and flew an unfamiliar-looking blue flag.

Was it a prank? A stunt? Weird propaganda?

The mystery was solved a few days later when Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon appeared live online. Together on a boat near the Statue of Liberty, with the same blue flag in the background, they awkwardly took turns speaking to the camera. "We must eliminate Marxism-Leninism, the pariah and totalitarian regime of the Chinese Communist Party," Mr Guo declared.

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