Chen’s sudden repatriation suggests the CCP moved urgently to keep him from falling into foreign custody.
Chinese state television aired footage on Jan. 8 showing armed police escorting Chen Zhi into custody after Cambodia extradited him to China a day prior.
Chen, founder and chairman of Cambodia-based Prince Holding Group, was indicted by the United States in October 2025. U.S. prosecutors allege that his conglomerate is a front for multibillion-dollar online fraud schemes and money laundering operations.
“Chen is a CCP asset,” alleged a former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operative who previously worked at the Prince Group, fled to Australia, and now uses the alias “Eric” out of fear of retaliation from authorities.
“The Prince Group is not a normal business conglomerate, but one of the most important agents for Beijing in Cambodia and across Southeast Asia,” Eric told The Epoch Times.
“Once Chen is in China, no matter how he’s dealt with, at least [the CCP] doesn’t have to worry about him being caught by the U.S. one day.”
Chen’s sudden repatriation suggests that the CCP moved urgently to keep him from falling into foreign custody after the U.S. military plucked leader Nicolás Maduro out of Venezuela on Jan. 3, said Lai Jianping, a former Beijing lawyer and independent scholar.
The U.S. military’s successful capture of Maduro could give Washington leverage to pressure governments such as Cambodia’s to hand over individuals wanted by the United States without long-distance military intervention, he said.
“Chen is an important CCP asset,” he said, noting that the United States, the UK, China, Thailand, and other countries all wanted him.
“He is an extremely sensitive figure,” Lai said. “Who holds him makes a big difference.”
Cambodia framed the extradition of Chen and two other suspects as bilateral cooperation against transnational crime, saying it was carried out at the request of relevant Chinese authorities after months of joint investigation.
And although the United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Cambodia, Beijing’s cautious public posture—such as limited coverage by major state-run media and a nonanswer from the foreign ministry—has fueled speculation that Chen is politically sensitive and that China did not want him to end up in U.S. custody.
At the Chinese foreign ministry’s regular news briefing in Beijing on Jan. 8, a reporter asked about Chen’s repatriation. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning did not confirm the case, saying that “competent authorities” would release information and that reporters should “stay tuned.”
China’s foreign ministry and public security authorities did not respond to media inquiries.
China’s biggest state-run media outlets—CCTV, People’s Daily, and Xinhua—did not report Chen’s repatriation until close to 5 p.m. on Jan. 8, roughly a day after Cambodia said it had already occurred.
Inside China, coverage of Chen has been sparse and tightly controlled. Chinese authorities have not publicly provided further details beyond Mao’s remark and online discussions about Chen’s case on Chinese social media have largely been deleted by various platforms, leading many netizens to accuse the CCP of shielding Chen and discouraging public discussion.
China has not publicly announced formal charges against Chen.
By Sean Tseng
