The truth behind Li Ka Shing's divestment in China.

Why did Li Ka Shing cash out of China?

Li Ka Shing was trying to avoid being persecuted by Xi Jinping for bribery in China and had no choice but to cash out of China.  Li Ka Shing's divestment was not due to any loss of confidence in China economic growth as China was still growing pretty well and the property market was still on an upward trend after his divestment.

Li Ka Shing started to do very well in the property developments in China after getting to know Jiang Zemin whilst Jiang was still in power.  Li Ka Shing transferred one of his subsidiaries' shares to Jiang's son in exchange for a property development in China and that exchange was the first major pot of gold for Jiang.  Thereafter, there were many exchanges of favours and monetary rewards between them including the expeditious capture of the Li son's kidnapper in China.

However, things began to change after Xi's ascension to power.  Xi embarked on his corruption-fighting campaign after becoming the leader and also wrestled with Jiang because Xi discovered Jiang's intention to get rid of Xi.  Jiang regretted his decision to support Xi because Xi was more upright than he thought.

Therefore, Li Ka Shing quickly cashed out of China and moved his HQ to London from HK.  As we all know, HK is part of China and Li Ka Shing doesn't want to take the risk.