Just as his friends know him as “Uncle Johnny” to Zhihua Yang, the businessman and friend of President José JeríXiaodong Ji Wu is familiarly called “Fidel”. But the agents of the High Complexity Crime Investigation Division (Diviac) did not know who “Fidel” was. The judicially authorized wiretaps carried out on the members of an organization dedicated to illegal logging in Madre de Dios, “The Hostiles of the Amazon”, made it possible to establish that “Fidel” was a key character: he had connections in the regional government, with Executive authorities in Lima and with the Chinese government through business channels. He was Xiaodong Ji Wu, born in Beijing, on December 24, 1954, who lived in Peru for more than 30 years.
If it had not been for the uncovering of the videos in which President Jerí appears in unofficial meetings with “Uncle Johnny” Yang, in the Sanborjino chifa of “Xin Yan” and in his business “Market Capón” in Jirón Paruro, very close to Chinatown, the businessman Xiaodong Ji Wu’s story would remain anonymous.
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The Sunday newspaper “Cuarto Poder” revealed that, being prosecuted for his involvement with a mafia of wood fellers, Ji Wu visited the Government Palace three times, on the same days that Zhihua Yang was also there. Interviewed by “América Noticias”, Jerí acknowledged that he knew Xiaodong Ji Wu, accused of being part of “The Hostiles of the Amazon”.
“He (Xiaodong Ji Wu) has always been in the contexts that Johnny (Zhihua Yang) has always been in.. He has been, for example, he has been in the chifa serving food,” Jerí explained: “It is precisely understood that it is his entire team. He is part of the people who work with him. (…) He (Ji Wu) does not speak much Spanish,” stated the head of state.
Translator. Former governor Luis Hidalgo on an official visit to China: at his side, Xiaodong Ji Wu. Photo: Gore Madre de Dios
This explains why Zhihua Yang and Xiaodong Ji Wu entered the Government Palace on December 12 and 19, 2025and on January 5, 2026. Despite the seriousness of the accusations against Xiaodong Ji Wu, he entered the Executive headquarters with “Uncle Johnny” Yang to meet with Jerí.
The transcription of the wiretaps of the components of the criminal organization of illegal loggers of Madre de Dios shows the degree of involvement of “Fidel” with “The Hostiles of the Amazon.” And they confirm that Xiaodong Ji Wu is not a “chifa waiter” and that it is not true that “he does not speak Spanish well,” as President Jerí has expressed.
According to the accusations of prosecutor Dionisio Quicaño Quispe, of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Crimes of Corruption of Officials of Madre de Dios, Xiaodong Ji Wu and former governor Luis Hidalgo Okimura were part of a plan for a forestry concession of conservation of timber trees, passed into the hands of the Chinese businessman Ji Wu, who supposedly served dishes at the chifa to Jerí.
The telephone conversations intercepted by the Constellation system based in the Anti-Drug Directorate (Dirandro), even prove that, as part of the strategy, Xiaodong Ji Wu, got a business group related to the Chinese government to invite Luis Hidalgo to the 11th Central China Investment and Trade Exhibition, in May 2019. The regional government of Madre de Dios bought the tickets for Hidalgo from the company Travel Perú SAC whose representative is “Fidel” Ji Wu.
Xiaodong Ji Wu’s lawyer, Mauro Betancourt Palomino, did not respond to calls from this newspaper.
After the trip through China, Luis Hidalgo began negotiations for Xiaodong Ji Wu to obtain the forestry concession whose dimension is 8 times the size of the Miraflores district.
Chinese tour. Hidalgo (second) and Ji Wu (fourth) in May 2019: upon return, the first favored the fourth by authorizing the transfer of a concession. Photo: Gore Madre de Dios
In the following conversation intercepted on December 15, 2019, “Fidel” Xiaodong Ji Wu and businessman Christian Stapelfeld Asayag talk, and mention two other accomplices: the advisor to the former governor, Palmer Pastor Velásquez, and the forestry concessionaire Deuso Souza Ríos. Ji Wu wanted Deuso Souza to make an illegal transfer of the concession that had been granted by the Regional Government of Madre de Dios. There was already talk of illegal payments. This is how it reads:
“Ji Wu: Hello.
“Stapelfeld: Fidel (Ji Wu), good morning.
“Ji Wu: Yes?
“Stapelfeld: You can talk, right?
“Ji Wu: Yes.
“I just met with Palmer (Pastor) and Deuso (Souza).
“Ji Wu: Yes.
“Stapelfeld: And they were explaining to me that they are sending a document where the company data is required. Of all the things for the transfer to begin.
“Ji Wu: Yes.
“Stapelfeld: (…) I was thinking Fidel, that according to what was discussed, I think that in this case you are coming here anyway. It would be good to clarify some points because they want to make the transfer. Those papers are already coming out these days. But you have to pay them for everything that is Inrena (National Institute of Natural Resources). It doesn’t work if you don’t pay them and you have to pay one, the other, and the other and Inrena’s lawyer. More than anything it seems to me that you have to talk to Deuso (Souza, concession holder).”
The tax imputation indicates that Xiaodong Ji Wu allegedly paid bribes to officials of the Madre de Dios Regional Government to validate the transfer in their favor of the Rodal Semillero forestry concession, which Deuso Souza manages through the Tahuamanu Ecology and Environment Association.
It is an area of natural forests with mahogany and cedar, chestnut, ishpingo and chiringa trees, with an area of 12,700 hectares. The amount of the transfer exceeded US$1 million.
On November 5, 2019, this time Deuso Souza talks with “Fidel” himself, Xiaodong Ji Wu, also about illegal payments:
“Souza: Hello?
“Ji Wu: Deuso, haven’t you paid yet? I’m going to Puerto (Maldonado), already?”
“Souza: Now, please Don Fidel. We are here, now?”
“Ji Wu: Desperate…
“Souza: Don Fidel, I don’t listen to you at all.
“Ji Wu: Ya, ya, okay…
Then, on November 25, 2019, Xiaodong Ji Wu called his secretary, Patricia, to ask her if she had already deposited the money to Deuso Souza, because the regional governor at the time, Luis Hidalgo Okimura, did not comply with carrying out an errand. And it was because he didn’t receive his money.
“Patricia: I already took out (the money).
“Ji Wu: Is it about the doctor (Hidalgo)? What does he do? Was he there or not?”
“Patricia: Eh, I imagine so. I’m going to call Lily, because I already sent her everything (the money). I’m going to ask her everything she needs, the account number, I’ve sent everything to her.
“Ji Wu: Okay, okay… I mean, you don’t have to send anything but ask if you’ve already received it or not. To be able to talk to the doctor (Hidalgo). I’ve come for the errand and so far he hasn’t answered me. He’s probably waiting for the money
“Patricia: Yeah, okay.
For prosecutor Dionisio Quicaño, Xiaodong Ji Wu was an operator for the Chinese government and was closely linked to lumber and other types of businesses. For that reason he took Governor Luis Hidalgo to China to present him to a conglomerate of businessmen from that country, interested in investing in the Madre de Dios region. The plan was thwarted by the intervention of the prosecutor’s office. “Fidel” was not a simple chifa waiter, as President Jerí said.
The real background of the plot
- On Xiaodong Ji Wu’s cell phone, the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office extracted a folder of documents containing the contract for the transfer of contractual position, between the president of Ecology and Environment of Tahuamanu (ECOMATH), Deuso Souza Ríos, and the company Environment and Development of the Communities of Peru (EDECOMP), represented by Xiaodong Ji Wu, “Fidel.”
- Papers of the negotiations for the acquisition of the Rodal Semillero conservation concession between the partners were also found.
- The objective was the reversion of the agricultural properties that were superimposed within the concession and shorten the one-year period required by law to make the change of use of the transfer.
- Xiaodong Ji Wu is under house arrest. Luis Hidalgo Okimura left the country violating the exit impediment.
