Tian has been a member of 
CCP for 46 years and has been awarded several honors, including “Outstanding Communist Party Member of Tianjin,” according to the Tianjin Small and Medium Enterprises Association, where Tian serves as a deputy director. The association has close ties with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a key part of China’s united front.
Tian joined PLA at age 19. When his company hosted an event for PLA veterans in 2022 to promote patriotism and loyalty to the CCP, he told the gathering that he still practiced many PLA habits including “a hard work ethic,” according to a local government press release.
US and Palau officials also worry about Tian’s local ties. In January, Palauan authorities busted what they said was a Chinese-language online gambling and scam operation in a hotel owned by the family of Vance Polycarp, the local agent for Tian’s hotel project. A dozen people, including eight of Polycarp’s employees, were detained. Polycarp was charged with four misdemeanor labor violations.
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In October, six US C-17 transport planes swept down on Palau’s Roman Tmetuchl International Airport, part of an exercise simulating scenarios the US could face in Palau in a conflict with China. Hundreds of Army Rangers practiced rapidly securing the airfield before an artillery brigade launched six missiles from High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), all while an electromagnetic warfare squadron provided secure communications.
A mile from the western end of the runway, a sign in Chinese and English warns the public to stay out. Atop a hill, workers were finishing the foundations of a 50-room hotel called the Ritzy.
The company building the Ritzy — Horizon Holdings Group — has ties to a Chinese-Cambodian conglomerate — Prince Holding Group — that Chinese officials have linked to transnational crime. A risk assessment suggests that the two companies are associated.
Li Yangkun, Horizon Holding’s chairman, claimed that the links stemmed from a partner’s selling a company to the Prince Group in 2017. However, commercial data shows that Li’s partner, Zhou Bo, continued to serve as a director of the company for at least two years after the sale, alongside Prince Group Chairman Chen Zhi. Zhou also served alongside Chen for several years as a director of Prince Bank PLC, a Prince Group subsidiary.
Chinese prosecutors have accused Prince Group subsidiaries of luring people to Cambodia to work in online casinos. The CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commissionhas called the Phnom Penh-based conglomerate a “massive cross-border online gambling corporation,” with officials estimating illicit revenue of $700 million between 2016 and 2024.
Prince Group spokesman Gabriel Tan acknowledged the past links between Zhou and Chen but said Zhou’s involvement with the Prince Group ended in 2019. Records show that was when Horizon Holdings was incorporated, also in Cambodia.
Tan said the Prince Group has no ties to the Ritzy or Horizon Holdings and “no operations, investments, development activities, subsidiaries, or partnerships in Palau.” He said that any court cases mentioning the company were “cases of impersonation” and that “no executive or employee” has been prosecuted, convicted or “formally investigated in China or any other jurisdiction.”
The conglomerate has maintained its business in China, including several real estate offices that work with state-owned companies, and is involved in projects in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global infrastructure investment program.
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CCP for 46 years and has been awarded several honors, including “Outstanding Communist Party Member of Tianjin,” according to the Tianjin Small and Medium Enterprises Association, where Tian serves as a deputy director. The association has close ties with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a key part of China’s united front.
Tian joined PLA at age 19. When his company hosted an event for PLA veterans in 2022 to promote patriotism and loyalty to the CCP, he told the gathering that he still practiced many PLA habits including “a hard work ethic,” according to a local government press release.
US and Palau officials also worry about Tian’s local ties. In January, Palauan authorities busted what they said was a Chinese-language online gambling and scam operation in a hotel owned by the family of Vance Polycarp, the local agent for Tian’s hotel project. A dozen people, including eight of Polycarp’s employees, were detained. Polycarp was charged with four misdemeanor labor violations.
***
In October, six US C-17 transport planes swept down on Palau’s Roman Tmetuchl International Airport, part of an exercise simulating scenarios the US could face in Palau in a conflict with China. Hundreds of Army Rangers practiced rapidly securing the airfield before an artillery brigade launched six missiles from High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), all while an electromagnetic warfare squadron provided secure communications.
A mile from the western end of the runway, a sign in Chinese and English warns the public to stay out. Atop a hill, workers were finishing the foundations of a 50-room hotel called the Ritzy.
The company building the Ritzy — Horizon Holdings Group — has ties to a Chinese-Cambodian conglomerate — Prince Holding Group — that Chinese officials have linked to transnational crime. A risk assessment suggests that the two companies are associated.
Li Yangkun, Horizon Holding’s chairman, claimed that the links stemmed from a partner’s selling a company to the Prince Group in 2017. However, commercial data shows that Li’s partner, Zhou Bo, continued to serve as a director of the company for at least two years after the sale, alongside Prince Group Chairman Chen Zhi. Zhou also served alongside Chen for several years as a director of Prince Bank PLC, a Prince Group subsidiary.
Chinese prosecutors have accused Prince Group subsidiaries of luring people to Cambodia to work in online casinos. The CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commissionhas called the Phnom Penh-based conglomerate a “massive cross-border online gambling corporation,” with officials estimating illicit revenue of $700 million between 2016 and 2024.
Prince Group spokesman Gabriel Tan acknowledged the past links between Zhou and Chen but said Zhou’s involvement with the Prince Group ended in 2019. Records show that was when Horizon Holdings was incorporated, also in Cambodia.
Tan said the Prince Group has no ties to the Ritzy or Horizon Holdings and “no operations, investments, development activities, subsidiaries, or partnerships in Palau.” He said that any court cases mentioning the company were “cases of impersonation” and that “no executive or employee” has been prosecuted, convicted or “formally investigated in China or any other jurisdiction.”
The conglomerate has maintained its business in China, including several real estate offices that work with state-owned companies, and is involved in projects in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s global infrastructure investment program.
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