Bo Xilai’s chief accuser at his corruption trial in China is a former prawn seller said to have made more than a billion dollars since linking up with the politician in the 1990s.
Born in April 1971 in the industrial port city of Dalian, Xu Ming spent his childhood in the countryside, the Hong Kong-based Mirror Books website said.
According to the website of Shide Group, the conglomerate Xu founded, he studied international trade at university.
His first job was a salesman in charge of Japanese clients at a prawn exporting firm in Dalian, according to Mirror Books, and he later established his own seafood trading company, although it was not a great success.
Shide Group was set up in 1992, around the same time that according to the Wall Street Journal Xu was introduced to Bo Xilai, then Dalian’s mayor, and his wife Gu Kailai by a Taiwanese-American businessman, and they developed a close relationship.
The firm grew into a national conglomerate in the following eight years thanks to local government policies and contracts linked to Bo’s plan to revamp Dalian into a shipping, fashion and information technology hub to impress the Party’s top leadership, the paper said.
Shide now operates in sectors including construction material, petrochemical, finance, sports and home appliances.
In an example of how close Xu was to the Bo family, he accompanied Gu and her son Bo Guagua on a trip to Britain more than 14 years ago to scout out schools for the boy, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Bo is accused of accepting 20.7 million yuan ($3.4 million) in bribes from Xu, who testified for the prosecution on Thursday.
According to transcripts of evidence provided by the court trying Bo in Jinan, Xu gave the family millions over the years, including paying off a credit card bill of more than $50,000 run up by Guagua, and buying the boy an 80,000 yuan ($13,000) Segway scooter.
He said that when Gu expressed a desire to buy a villa in France, he provided $3.2 million for her to do so.
On its website Shide Group said that Xu was listed as the 85th richest person in China in 2010, worth $1.6 billion.
He faces charges of illegal business actions, the court in eastern China heard.
Xu Ming: prawn seller turned key witness against China's Bo
