A journalistic revelation has set off alarms on the national political scene. The president José Jerí held at least three meetings in Government Palace with the Chinese businessman Ji Wu Xiaodong, who faces a house arrest order for his alleged connection with a criminal organization dedicated to illegal timber trafficking, according to official documentation published by the Sunday newspaper Cuarto Poder.
The meetings took place between December 2025 and January of this year, despite the fact that Ji Wu Xiaodong maintains an active judicial process and is being investigated for his alleged relationship with the criminal network known as ‘The Hostiles of the Amazon’, accused of the illicit commercialization of forest resources.
According to the report, the businessman has a house arrest measure in force since 2024, dictated by the Judiciary for a period of 24 months. The judicial resolution establishes that said restriction had to be executed and supervised in coordination with the National Police of Peru, including verification of the property where the order was to be carried out.
Entrance to the Palace three times
However, official records show that Ji Wu Xiaodong entered the Government Palace on at least three occasions.
The first visit occurred on December 12, 2025, when he was received for a work meeting by an official from the Undersecretary of Strategic Communication and Institutional Image. On that occasion, he was accompanied by Zhihua Yang, a Chinese businessman and close friend of the interim president.
On December 29, Xiaodong returned to the presidential headquarters and was received by the head of the Secretariat of Strategic Communication and Press, Johanna Ocampo.
This visit lasted for nearly three hours, from 9:32 to 12:26 noon. Later, on January 5, both businessmen returned to the Palace and were received again by the same official. So far, the reason for these meetings has not been officially reported.
The businessman’s judicial history includes a preventive detention order issued in 2022, which was appealed and later replaced by house arrest. However, his immigration record indicates that he left the country for the United States in August of that same year, before the restrictive measure was reaffirmed.
Investigation against Chinese businessman
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Ji Wu Xiaodong is being investigated for alleged crimes of criminal organization, aggravated corruption, generic active bribery and influence peddling. Among the elements that support the investigation is the alleged delivery of gifts to a former governor of the Madre de Dios region and the management of benefits linked to logging concessions in areas affected by illegal logging.
The Public Ministry maintains that the house arrest order remains in force and that there are no records of adequate supervision of its compliance.
The Sunday newspaper was unable to locate the businessman to collect his version of the events, although he noted that the link with the president would have been facilitated by Congressman Luis Cordero, former member of the Somos Perú bench.
