Patrick Ho arrest by US raises some important questions

Patrick Ho Chi-ping, secretary-general of the Hong Kong-based think tank China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC) and former secretary for home affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, was arrested by United States federal authorities last Saturday. He has been charged with international bribery. Ho's arrest quickly made headlines across all media platforms. CEFC China Energy, a Shanghai-based oil firm with connections to CEFC, also became the target of considerable media interest.

In the absence of more information, we obviously must not rush to judgment about the veracity of these charges. But an interesting coincidence leads us to ask this question: Did the US really intend to uphold fairness and justice when it took such action against Ho?

CEFC China Energy concluded an oil-supply deal with Russia's top oil producer Rosneft on Nov 20. This was the day before the US Justice Department announced Ho had been arrested and revealed the charges against him.

According to that deal, Rosneft will export 60.8 million tons of oil to China over a period of five years. Earlier this year, CEFC China Energy also acquired a 14.16-percent stake in Rosneft for $9.1 billion from a consortium of Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority.

The oil-purchasing contract between CEFC China Energy and Rosneft - and also the former acquiring the latter's stakes - came in the wake of a number of energy deals between China and Russia in recent years. China has replaced the US as the world's leading oil importer; meanwhile Russia produces more oil than any other country today. It is only natural for China and Russia to increase cooperation in energy production and supply in order to achieve a win-win outcome - relatively stable oil and natural gas supply for China and much-needed cash for Russia to fund its economic recovery.

It is worth noting that some of the oil and gas supply deals between China and Russia were settled in renminbi - a growing trend in international trade today. Besides Russia, Iran and Venezuela also accept renminbi for oil exports to China. What the rise of the "petroyuan" means to the dominant status of petrodollars should not be too hard to see.

There is no question the US is still the sole superpower in the world; one of the most effective ways for it to control the global economy is through the petrodollar. The US will do anything necessary to secure its domination of international energy production and supply by maintaining the dominant status of petrodollars - the dollar monopoly in energy trade. This is because its superpower status and world domination to a large extent depend on this. Frequently citing "American interests", the US has waged war more than once in its recent history to protect the supremacy of petrodollars in the world. Iraq under Saddam Hussein was one of those nations unfortunate enough to be "punished" by Washington for daring to defy it. The US invaded Iraq in 2003 with the excuse of removing weapons of mass destruction. But the US military found no traces of WMD.

As for the alleged bribery case involving Ho, all the parties implicated are from places far from the US - and have nothing to do with it. This gives rise to the question: Was the US action genuinely intended to safeguard fairness and justice or merely a move to head off a perceived threat to its hegemony?

The author is a current affairs commentator. This is an excerpted translation of the author's opinion piece published in Wen Wei Po on Wednesday.

(HK Edition 11/24/2017 page12)