Report: Chinese authorities nab ex-CDH exec

Wang Gongquan, founder of CDH's venture capital unit, has reportedly been taken from his home by police due to his links to a civic group advocating greater transparency.

Wang Gongquan, the founder of CDH Investments venture capital business, has been detained by Chinese authorities due to his involvement in the New Citizens Movement, a civic group that advocates greater transparency in government, according to several media reports.

Police took Wang from his home in Beijing on Friday for questioning about “gathering a crowd to disturb order in public places”, according to a report in the South China Morning Post, citing an activist and lecturer at the University of Politics and Law in Beijing. 

Wang is also a close friend of arrested rights activist Xu Zhiyong, the report said. 

Police took Wang from his home in Beijing on Friday for questioning about “gathering a crowd to disturb order in public places”

A CDH spokesman clarified that Wang left CDH Venture two years ago and has no connection to the firm anymore.

The New Citizens Movement is described in a Wall Street Journal report as “a loose collection of mostly white-collar urbanites who have issued calls for greater protection of the right to free speech and other individual rights enshrined in China’s constitution. Members of the group have also been aggressive in pressing officials to publicly disclose their assets.”

Wang joined CDH in 2005 and the following year helped found its venture capital business. In 2011, Wang made a media splash and sparked concerns over key man risk when he left the firm to elope with Wang Qin, founder of real estate developer Jiangsu Zhongfu Investment Company.

“I have given up everything and eloped with Wang Qin,” he announced on his Chinese language blog at the time.

CDH Venture has about $1.1 billion of assets under management across three USD funds and one RMB fund, according to Private Equity International’s Research & Analytics division.