Mystery of the missing PR firm chief
Print Edition
US public relations firm Edelman said yesterday that it did not know the whereabouts of its China chief, who has been helping Chinese authorities with an unspecified investigation.
Two sources said Steven Cao had not been seen at either the Edelman office in Beijing or that of its subsidiary, Pegasus Public Relations Consulting, this week. Cao is chief executive of Edelman’s China arm and also runs Pegasus.
Cao co-founded Pegasus with celebrity news anchor Rui Chenggang and another partner. Rui was detained in July amid a broader corruption investigation into state broadcaster CCTV, where he hosts a popular financial news program.
“We have not been in contact with Steven, so we don’t have any further information about Steven’s whereabouts,” Edelman said in a statement.
Cao was “cooperating with authorities on the investigation,” it said, repeating a comment it made last week, without elaborating.
Pegasus also said last week that Cao was cooperating with authorities on an inquiry, without saying what it was about.
Asked about Cao’s whereabouts earlier this week, Pegasus said it would be “inappropriate to comment further on an ongoing investigation.”
Chinese authorities visited the Pegasus offices in Beijing’s financial district on July 24, Pegasus has said.
Edelman acquired Pegasus in 2007. It has said it expected Rui, who was working at CCTV at the time, to divest his minority shares right away. But Rui didn’t sell his stake to Cao until three years later, Edelman said.
Pegasus was hired by corporate sponsors involved in underwriting CCTV’s presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2009 and 2010, Edelman has said, without naming the sponsors. Rui had moderated panels at the forum.
The US company, which is co-headquartered in New York and Chicago, has several offices in China and says on its website it assists Chinese state-owned enterprises as well as multinational clients.
Rui is famous for starting a movement to oust a Starbucks outlet from Beijing’s Forbidden City. Starbucks Corp is an Edelman client.
President Xi Jinping has vowed to take down powerful “tigers” as well as lowly “flies” in an ongoing graft-busting campaigns.
The Party earlier this week announced an investigation into former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, the highest-profile figure so far to be caught up in Xi’s corruption crackdown.
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