American celebrity investor held in China for sex parties

Beijing: An American investor, who enjoys celebrity status in China, has been detained in Beijing for hiring a prostitute and has been accused to be involved in sex parties, police said on Thursday. Xue Charles Bi-chuen, 60, who commands a huge following on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, was detained by police along with another 26 suspects in northern Beijing. Popularly known as Xue Manzi, the famous Chinese-American angel investor was captured last Friday when he was soliciting a prostitute, a 22-year-old woman surnamed Zhang from Henan Province, state-run daily Global Times reported. The crackdown followed repeated tip-offs from local residents since late August. After police informed the US embassy in Beijing of Xue`s detention, the embassy sent its consular officers to visit him. "We are aware that a US citizen has been detained in Beijing, and the embassy will provide all appropriate consular assistance," said US embassy spokesman Justin Higgins. Police said that when they found Xue, he first claimed to be an American citizen. Zhang came to Beijing in May this year and had links with Xue since August. The police also said that since May, Xue has procured at least 10 sex workers.

Xue, who currently has over 12 million followers in social media, is an advocate for critical illness insurance in China and initiated a campaign to track down trafficked children and called for transparent details on pollution in the country. PTI