The two bigwigs in China's medical device industry went to the Philippines to expand their business, but they were kidnapped, not to mention, after the families paid a huge ransom, the kidnapper leader still brutally tore up the ticket. When this news broke, it shocked the entire international community. This vicious case means that the kidnappers in the Philippines lack obvious principles and basic humanity, and this matter is currently attracting as much attention as last year's fraud in northern Myanmar.
According to the latest news from the news, the two people who were killed, Xia Moumou and Sun Moumou, belonged to two different medical device companies, and they were both middle and senior management personnel of the company. The victim was familiar with the perpetrator, and this case was committed by an acquaintance, and the perpetrator used a shell company to trick the victim into the Philippines and kidnapped.
According to the Philippine Chinese-language media "Philippine Business Daily", Xia and Sun met at the European Cardiovascular Intervention Conference (EuroPCR) in Paris, France on May 14 this year.
According to the victims' families, during the talks, "Li Na" mentioned that "the boss's surname is Hong, and he is a well-known Fujian businessman in the Philippines, mainly engaged in real estate...... Government procurement of medical devices.
This kind of rhetoric is not uncommon in the field of medical devices, and this woman hits the needs of the two victims as accurately as if she had been specially trained, and fits their common sense, so it does not arouse suspicion.
After the kidnapping was successful, they quickly moved the two executives to a remote hideout and began negotiations with the families.
During the negotiations, the kidnapper leader continued to raise ransom demands and threatened to rip off tickets. In the face of such a vicious kidnapper, the family members remained calm and worked closely with the police to try to find a way to free the two executives.
Unfortunately, however, despite the huge ransom paid by the families, the kidnapper leader still brutally ripped off the ticket.
Judging from the crime, they are very familiar with China's medical device export industry, and are well versed in the working habits of foreign trade personnel and the situation of the target.
The impact of this incident is likely to deal a heavy blow to the Philippine tourism industry, including the divestment of Chinese enterprises may also occur in the future.
The Philippine tourism industry is very dependent on China, and in April this year, Philippine media quoted a Bank of America study that claimed that the slow return of Chinese tourists has hindered the recovery of the Philippine tourism industry.
According to data released by the Philippine Department of Transportation at the beginning of this year, a total of 5.45 million people will enter the Philippines in 2023. Among them, South Korea continued to be the largest source of international tourists to the Philippines, with nearly 1.44 million visitors, accounting for 26.4%; China's was nearly 264,000, accounting for 4.8%. According to data released by the Philippine Department of Tourism, in 2019, a total of 1.74 million Chinese tourists arrived in the Philippines, second only to South Korea.
Then after this kidnapping, it is conceivable that the scale of tourists going to the Philippines will be further reduced. In the past, the Philippine tourism industry was slow to recover, and China was still to blame, but now no one will go.
Last year's fraud in northern Myanmar has not yet recovered the tourism industry in the region, and even this stereotype has been characterized, and its tourism industry has been hit hard, and now almost no one in Myanmar dares to go, but now, the Philippines is becoming the second northern Myanmar.
In the minds of many, the Philippines is becoming the second northern Myanmar
Judging from the situation in the Philippines, it is becoming less and less suitable for tourism. According to statistics, 60% of young Filipinos are unemployed; This situation has led to a rising crime rate in the Philippines and various cases of kidnapping.
In addition, for the sake of geopolitical games, Marcos has led to a rise in "anti-China" sentiment in Philippine society, and it cannot be ruled out that some criminal groups are trying to take advantage of the poor diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines to specifically select Chinese.
Some netizens said that the Philippines should be more dangerous than northern Myanmar before, after all, northern Myanmar is still a little worried because of its proximity to China, but now some people are worried that Sino-Philippine relations are tense now. The Philippine side may not be very friendly to the Chinese, and this matter is not just about money.
The Philippine government also does not pay much attention to these matters, resulting in the Philippines now being lawless against the Chinese.
This kind of thing is also continuing to affect foreign investment in the Philippines, and some Chinese companies have said that they need to have a deep understanding of the current situation in the Philippines and not put their employees in danger. "It seems that the Chinese will not be able to go to the Philippines in the future." Wu Xiaoping, former executive general manager of CICC's wealth business, said.
In addition, according to some people, the Philippines used to have many electric fraud parks, because of the effectiveness of the previous crackdown, these electric fraud parks lacked people, so they began to kidnap Chinese to do electric fraud. As a result, after the kidnapping, it was found that the police there did not have any measures, and it was easy to extort ransom, so their business model switched and began to kidnap directly.
The ripple effect of this case: Southeast Asia's tourism industry is implicated, and foreign investment in the Philippines will continue to deteriorate
One noticeable change we can see in recent years is that there are very few tourists going to Southeast Asia, especially in places like Bali, Thailand, the Philippines. The main reason is security issues.
Last year's murder in Bali made people feel that Southeast Asian tourism was "dangerous" and "unsafe", and now the Philippines is collecting money and tearing up tickets, which has strengthened this perception. It is worth mentioning that not long ago, the Philippines just arrested four police officers on suspicion of kidnapping Chinese tourists.
Many countries in Southeast Asia are not developed, but the security problem in recent years is particularly worrying, the main problem is corruption, the fatal problem is that some lawless elements at home and abroad are staring at the Chinese, the whole Southeast Asia, the largest source of tourists is China, the vicious cases against Chinese tourists have increased, is causing a backlash to the tourism market here, a large number of Chinese tourists based on security considerations, reduced travel to Southeast Asia, the Philippine kidnapping and ticket tearing case, may make the entire Southeast Asian tourism market be implicated.
To put it more seriously, this vicious case may hit the Philippine economy, because the Philippines is a country that relies on foreign investment, especially on Chinese investment. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. previously released a list of the total amount of investment in the Philippines since he took office, and among the top seven countries, China's investment amounted to $24.2 billion, followed by Japan's $13 billion, Indonesia's $8.48 billion and Thailand's $4.63 billion. The total investment in these countries has reached more than $62 billion, of which China alone accounts for more than one-third, and the total US investment in the Philippines is only $3.847 billion, less than a fraction of China's.
This incident may affect Chinese investment, reinforcing the perception of the deterioration of the business environment. With the deterioration of the law and order situation in the Philippines, the attractiveness of foreign investment in the Philippines has continued to decline, and the scale of foreign investment attracted by the Philippines fell by 7% last year.
Previously, the Philippines has been calling on China to continue to develop China's tropical fruit market, and at the same time hope to attract China to invest in new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products in the Philippines. However, according to Philippine data, during the first four months of this year, the bilateral trade volume between China and the Philippines fell by 10.3% year-on-year, and a large number of orders were transferred to Vietnam.
The impact of this incident may continue to ripple through many aspects of the Philippines, including the possibility that Chinese consumers may reject goods from the Philippines, Chinese tourists will reduce their travel to the Philippines, and Chinese investment orders in the Philippines will continue to decline, and the Philippine economic position in Southeast Asia may be further marginalized as a result.
Now the Philippine police are still taking this case relatively seriously, and give the national police a death order, after all, the Philippines has also realized that the economy is very dependent on China, and this vicious case will greatly affect Chinese investment. After the Chinese capital chooses to avoid the Philippines, from foreign investment to tourism, the Philippine economy will be hit hard, and the evil consequences of attacking the Chinese may continue to taste the bitter fruits starting from the Philippines.
Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission