Chinese Flying Money: the secret key to China’s international trading success

This project exposes the key, enabling financial mechanism deployed by the local poaching and Chinese smuggling syndicates known as "Chinese Flying Money" or "Fei Qian", an ancient trade-based settlement system that operates outside of the overview of the international regulatory oversight of the formal banking system. 

The investigation followed the trail of abalone smuggled via Namibia from the Western Cape in South Africa to Hong Kong and the New Territories, illegally harvested rosewood from Angola, Zambia and the DRC sent to China and Vietnam, as well as examining the drugs-for-abalone trade in the Western and a tax fraud case in Namibia to illustrate how the Fei Qian mechanism works.

The investigation drew on sources in Spain, Hong Kong, Namibia and South Africa, ongoing and old court cases, property, company and other public records and interviews with former and current law enforcement officials to set out the politically enabling mechanism and the means by which billions of dollars are illegally but invisibly exported from Africa to China.

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Two previous members of the team from Spain and Hong Kong withdrew from the investigation due to changes in personal circumstances.