Chinese Cops Nab Chairman, CEO Of HNA Group

China's HNA Group, once one of the country's most acquisitive conglomerates, said on Friday, that its chairman and its chief executive had been taken away by police due to suspected criminal offenses, Brenda Goh, Twinnie Siu, and Min Zhang reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: HNA Chairman Chen Feng

The company, placed in bankruptcy administration in February, said in a statement on its official WeChat account it had been notified by police in its home province of Hainan, southern China, that Chairman Chen Feng and CEO Tan Xiangdong had been taken.

"The operations of HNA Group and its member companies are stable and orderly, and the bankruptcy and restructuring work is progressing smoothly according to the law," the company said.

A separate HNA statement on Friday said the company's Communist Party members were informed in a meeting that police had taken away Chen and Tan. Attendees were urged to strengthen the party's leadership in HNA.

Strange as it seems, HNA is not party-owned but the Communist Party of China (CPC) wants to control its operations and operate it as a CPC unit, thus adding more basis for US suspicions that the majority of China companies are managed by the CPC.

Chen, 68, became HNA's sole chairman in 2018 when his co-founder and then co-chairman Wang Jian died in France in what local police said appeared to be an accidental fall from a wall while posing for a photograph.

The 54-year-old Tan Xiangdong, also known as Adam Tan, became HNA Group's CEO in 2016. He stepped down as chairman of Dublin-based aircraft leasing giant Avolon, in which HNA affiliate Bohai Leasing owns a majority stake, in February this year.

A filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for Park Hotels & Resorts Inc., dated March 15, 2017, indicated that Tan is a US citizen.

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