Beijing: The billionaire chairman of one of China’s biggest private-sector conglomerates, Club Med owner Fosun, has disappeared from public and is being questioned over a corruption inquiry, reports said, as shares in the group’s companies were suspended Friday.
Guo Guangchang, 48, dubbed “China’s Warren Buffett,” has been out of contact since Thursday, respected business magazine Caixin reported on its website.
Police took Guo away at one of Shanghai’s airports, Caixin cited social media postings as saying, without making clear whether he was under investigation himself or assisting a probe.
“Many linked his disappearance to an investigation by the authorities,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Since coming to power Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a much-publicized anti-corruption campaign that has ensnared a long list of officials, including the country’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang.
It has largely been confined to within the ruling Communist Party — with critics saying it has been used for internal faction-fighting — and Guo would be by far the highest-profile businessman to fall if he is brought down by it.
Chinese authorities have also launched wide-ranging probes into the financial sector following a market rout earlier this year when a debt-fueled bubble — encouraged by officials — burst.
Guo is China’s 17th richest person with a net worth of $5.6 billion, according to Bloomberg News.
He is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a debating chamber that is part of the Communist Party-controlled governmental structure.
The Fosun Group is one of the country’s biggest private companies and its flagship subsidiary, Fosun International, has net assets of 50 billion yuan ($7.8 billion).
Fosun has interests in property, finance, pharmaceuticals, steel and entertainment, and has been aggressively buying assets in Europe and North America.
It bought renowned French holiday company Club Med earlier this year and in April was part of a consortium that acquired Canadian entertainment juggernaut Cirque du Soleil.
It also has a stake in British-based tour operator Thomas Cook.
Fosun Group is due to hold its annual meeting on Monday, where Guo usually makes a speech, Chinese news portal Sohu said.
He was being questioned in connection with an investigation into former Shanghai vice mayor and director of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone Ai Baojun, it added.
The Communist Party’s internal anti-graft body announced last month Ai was under investigation for “severe disciplinary violations,” a euphemism for corruption.
Ai’s wife was reportedly investigated on suspicion of manipulating the stock market. She died of kidney failure a week before Ai fell.
Chinese media said previously that Ai was the highest level official in Shanghai — widely seen as the power base of former leader Jiang Zemin — to be brought down since Xi took over as Communist chief in 2012.
According to Caixin, Guo was named in a court verdict on Wang Zongnan, head of state-controlled Shanghai retailer Bailian, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for embezzlement and bribery in August.
A Fosun subsidiary is Bailian’s second-largest shareholder, it added.
Both Wang and Ai are said to have links with Jiang. Wang is allegedly a close friend of the former head of state, according to overseas Chinese media, while Ai reportedly secured rapid promotions due to a close personal friendship of one of Jiang’s relatives.
Trading in the shares of Fosun International, the group’s main subsidiary, was halted “pending the release of an announcement containing inside information,” it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, where it is listed, as did another unit, Fosun Pharmaceutical.
Several other Fosun Group subsidiaries also halted trading on the Shanghai stock exchange.
Tina Law, a spokeswoman for Fosun, declined to confirm reports that Guo could not be reached as it was “sensitive information that affects stock prices,” but told AFP that the company’s operations were “all normal.”
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Billionaire head of China’s Fosun group ‘vanishes’
Billionaire head of China’s Fosun group ‘vanishes’
5 European nations pledge millions to use Ukrainian know-how to make cheap drone defenses
WARSAW: Five European nations have announced a new program to produce low-cost air defense systems and autonomous drones using Ukrainian expertise hard-won over the past four years of war against Russia.
Friday’s initiative of the E5 nations — France, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy — comes as one of many European efforts to bolster defense along their borders, like a ” drone wall ” with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have cutting-edge drone warfare capabilities forged in the grim laboratory of war where battlefield innovations have rewritten modern battle tactics. Poland is already working with Ukraine on drone technology in joint military training programs and manufacturing projects.
Those efforts were sparked by a spate of incidents in which Europe’s borders and airports have been tested by rogue drones. Russia has been blamed for some of them but denies that anything was done on purpose or that it played a role.
“The UK and our E5 partners are stepping up — investing together in the next generation of air defense and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO’s shield,” said Luke Pollard, Britain’s minister for defense readiness and industry.
“We have some of the best kit on the entire planet for shooting down air threats. The problem is to be effective at shooting down relatively low-cost missiles, drones, and other threats facing us,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’re matching the cost of the threats with the cost of defense.”
Poland’s defense minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said the group of countries signed an agreement to jointly invest in the production and procurement of drone-based strike capabilities as well as cheap drone defense systems in a program called called Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms, or LEAP.
“Combat technologies and techniques are changing rapidly — we must respond quickly and appropriately,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said. “We also signed a crucial commitment regarding the joint development of drone-based strike capabilities, low-cost joint production, and joint procurement of drone effectors, i.e, combat payloads, using artificial intelligence.”
When Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September 2025, Warsaw and its NATO allies used multimillion-dollar jets to respond to drones that cost thousands and that ended up crashing into the Polish countryside. Low-cost kinetic or electronic effectors would allow the detection and destruction of drones at a fraction of the price.
Europe has scrambled to arm itself in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s deep criticism of NATO, European defense spending and once iron-clad alliances. The EU has ramped up spending and is openly questioning even deeper military projects.
“Europe’s security is more uncertain than it has been in decades,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, citing Russian aggression, instability in the Middle East, China and a “redefined” alliance with the US She said that the low-cost interceptor program exemplifies the European commitment to its own security.
“If we want to keep our country safe, we must strengthen our hard power. The good news is that we are already investing record sums in defense. Europe is stepping up. but it’s not about competing with NATO. It’s about making Europe stronger within NATO. A stronger Europe makes the alliance also stronger.”
Yet the 32-nation military alliance has been shaken by Trump’s second administration. Most recently, his repeated threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and disparaging remarks about his NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan drew another outcry.
While tensions over Greenland have subsided for now, the infighting has seriously undercut the ability of the world’s biggest security alliance to deter adversaries.
Friday’s initiative of the E5 nations — France, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy — comes as one of many European efforts to bolster defense along their borders, like a ” drone wall ” with Russia and Ukraine to better detect, track and intercept drones violating Europe’s airspace.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have cutting-edge drone warfare capabilities forged in the grim laboratory of war where battlefield innovations have rewritten modern battle tactics. Poland is already working with Ukraine on drone technology in joint military training programs and manufacturing projects.
Those efforts were sparked by a spate of incidents in which Europe’s borders and airports have been tested by rogue drones. Russia has been blamed for some of them but denies that anything was done on purpose or that it played a role.
“The UK and our E5 partners are stepping up — investing together in the next generation of air defense and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO’s shield,” said Luke Pollard, Britain’s minister for defense readiness and industry.
“We have some of the best kit on the entire planet for shooting down air threats. The problem is to be effective at shooting down relatively low-cost missiles, drones, and other threats facing us,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’re matching the cost of the threats with the cost of defense.”
Poland’s defense minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said the group of countries signed an agreement to jointly invest in the production and procurement of drone-based strike capabilities as well as cheap drone defense systems in a program called called Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms, or LEAP.
“Combat technologies and techniques are changing rapidly — we must respond quickly and appropriately,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said. “We also signed a crucial commitment regarding the joint development of drone-based strike capabilities, low-cost joint production, and joint procurement of drone effectors, i.e, combat payloads, using artificial intelligence.”
When Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September 2025, Warsaw and its NATO allies used multimillion-dollar jets to respond to drones that cost thousands and that ended up crashing into the Polish countryside. Low-cost kinetic or electronic effectors would allow the detection and destruction of drones at a fraction of the price.
Europe has scrambled to arm itself in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s deep criticism of NATO, European defense spending and once iron-clad alliances. The EU has ramped up spending and is openly questioning even deeper military projects.
“Europe’s security is more uncertain than it has been in decades,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, citing Russian aggression, instability in the Middle East, China and a “redefined” alliance with the US She said that the low-cost interceptor program exemplifies the European commitment to its own security.
“If we want to keep our country safe, we must strengthen our hard power. The good news is that we are already investing record sums in defense. Europe is stepping up. but it’s not about competing with NATO. It’s about making Europe stronger within NATO. A stronger Europe makes the alliance also stronger.”
Yet the 32-nation military alliance has been shaken by Trump’s second administration. Most recently, his repeated threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and disparaging remarks about his NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan drew another outcry.
While tensions over Greenland have subsided for now, the infighting has seriously undercut the ability of the world’s biggest security alliance to deter adversaries.
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