President José Jerí will appear today before the Congressional Oversight Commission to give his final version, after the other four versions he already provided, about the real reasons why he secretly met with a Chinese businessman on two occasions.
JERÍ RESPONDS
When asked by the congressmen, the head of state gave answers legislator by legislator and assured that “an error is not a crime.” The president insisted that his clothing and method of entry were inappropriate, but that despite this there was no act of corruption in his interactions with the Chinese citizen known as “John.”
“In public places, no meeting is secret. There is always a camera and there is always a person watching who enters,” he said.
In addition, he sarcastically clarified that at the dinner on December 26, an invitation to travel to China was discussed “for the twentieth time”, which he declined, and they talked about the celebration of the Peru-China Friendship Day. He denied having interceded with Indecopi or the municipality to favor his former friend’s business, as revealed by this newspaper. “I have no influence on the decisions of an autonomous entity. Indecopi has already denied any intervention by me,” he pointed out.
Faced with the direct request for resignation made by Congressman Roberto Sánchez, Jerí assured himself that “resigning would imply that I am admitting that I have committed something irregular or illicit. I am not going to resign because it would be admitting a fact that I have already denied.”
This president decided not to follow previous styles. “I take on the lawsuit from day zero, I enter the prisons and accompany the operations,” he insisted, thus justifying his meetings outside the Palace.
The head of state recognized a “weakness in the security system” of the Government Palace, which allowed the entry of people with sentences. “The system only sees if the visitor has requirements. It is a problem from previous years that we are already correcting so that no more suspicions are generated,” he assured.
Jerí insisted on the issue of his clothing and said: “I will provide complementary information in documented form with the corresponding videos, that when I have gone to some stores, shopping centers, generally elsewhere, I have also done so with glasses and hats. These videos circulate on the Internet and are prior to the topic of the call. Going to a shopping center to shop, for the president to go to the cashier to pay, for the president to go directly to do his things should not have anything strange.”
THE DEBATE STARTED
The parliamentary members of the Oversight Commission are debating the explanations that President José Jerí has offered regarding his meetings held with Chinese businessmen outside presidential hours.
Congresswoman Flor Pablo questioned the president and told him to “put together this whole show of lies and then say that you don’t remember who you spoke to in the early morning. Check your cell phone, Mr. Jerí. Tell us who you spoke to on January 6,” she rebuked.
Pablo rejected the president’s “victimization” and compared his situation with the insecurity crisis that the country is experiencing. “I am sorry that your mother is going through this, but a relative of mine was murdered last week with three bullets. That was his assignment: to reduce violence, not to meet with Chinese to plan Friendship Day. If you have time to go to the cafe, have time to work,” he asserted.
For his part, Congressman Jaime Quito denounced that the owner of the restaurant, whom Jerí affectionately calls “John”, is not just someone who owns a restaurant, but rather a supplier to the State. According to Quito, companies that are related to businessman Yang, such as Constructora Capón and América SAC, have registration to contract with the State. “There are clear signs of influence peddling here. Jerí should have come with his letter of resignation and not taken the population for fools,” he said.
In this context, legislator Edward Málaga requested an investigation into whether the leak of the videos is linked to Nicanor Boluarte, after revealing that he had issued receipts for fees to one of “John’s” companies.
Segundo Montalvo directly demanded the vacancy: “Not even a child believes what he said. Going in hooded to eat is regrettable. Let’s sign the vacancy, censorship is a mistake that benefits him.”
Héctor Ventura, for his part, compared the case with the clandestine visits to Pedro Castillo’s Sarratea house and raised technical questions about whether the Chinese citizen requested benefits in tenders or procedures before Indecopi, an investigation that was revealed by Peru21.
SPEAKS IN THE COMMISSION
“I have not sold out the country. I have not committed any irregular or illicit act at that dinner,” with these words, the President of the Republic, José Jerí Oré, began his defense before the Congressional Oversight Commission. The president attended Parliament to clarify questions about his unrecorded meetings with businessman Zhihua Yang.
The head of state entered Congress at 2:03 in the afternoon, arriving from the Palace in his official vehicle and with two figures who have been related to him: Johanna Ocampo, Secretary of Strategic Communication and Press of the Secretariat of Strategic Communication and Press of the Presidential Office, who met with the Chinese businessmen in his office; and Alicia Camargo, a woman who arrived with Jerí and her entourage at the Market Capón of her “former friend” Zhihua Yang.
In the midst of his justification, Jerí described the dinner on December 26 as an unplanned event that occurred after carrying out inspections with the Minister of the Interior. According to his testimony, the interaction with the owner of the premises was “circumstantial” and the covert entry “a mistake.”
“I do not want to say that I have not admitted a formal error. Yes, there has been an error in the way I entered the restaurant, I reiterate my apologies to the population for the inappropriate way in which I entered the restaurant,” he stated before the legislators.
The president argued that, if he had had illicit intentions, he would not have come accompanied by his presidential escort or the head of the Interior. “If someone wanted to do an irregular act, he is not going to go with his Minister of the Interior, he is not going to go with his bodyguard, and he is also not going to invite them to dinner with him,” he stated.
HE DID IT FOR HIS MOTHER
Jerí explained why he decided to come out and explain himself at this moment and not before. “When you see your mother coming down from her room to yours, worried with tears in her eyes, your entire reality changes. Your level of action has to change,” he confessed.
For the head of state, the dissemination of the videos is not a coincidence, but part of a “trap” designed by sectors that seek to alter the current 2026 electoral process. Jerí questioned why only one video was made public and not his other visits to the premises – such as those on December 13 or after activities at the Pentagon – he assured that it is a “malicious” manipulation of the information.
“There is a desire to destabilize the country and break the impartiality and transparency that the president must guarantee in a convened electoral process,” he denounced. Likewise, he assured that he will not allow his habit of “not encapsulating himself in four walls” to be used to attack him: “I am not going to be a traditional president, going shopping on the corner or going to eat at a chifa are common acts that I have always done.”
At the end of his speech, Jerí demanded that the investigations not only focus on his actions, but also on identifying those who are behind the leak of the images. “I also want to know who has been behind this and what their real objective has been,” he concluded, mentioning that he has a “clear conscience” and that he will continue to collaborate with both Congress and the Prosecutor’s Office.
Yesterday, the president sent a letter to the head of the Oversight Commission, Elvis Vergara, requesting that an extraordinary session be scheduled for today, Wednesday the 21st, to appear before that working group.
“I express my full willingness to appear before the Commission, to formulate the corresponding declarations and clarifications, reaffirming my commitment to the principles of transparency, institutional collaboration and respect for the constitutional order,” Jerí indicated in the letter yesterday.
One day before this request, the head of state made himself available to the working group and the Public Ministry for any investigation they wish to carry out against him. Anticipating the movement of both entities that, precisely, initiated processes to find out the reason for the meetings.
Parliamentarian Vergara convened the commission for today minutes before the president sends the letter where it is made available. The appointment will be made at 2:00 pm
MEETINGS CASE
Journalistic allegations about secretive and unrecorded meetings between the president and Chinese businessman Zhihua Yang have turned Jerí’s government upside down. The use of official vehicles for meetings outside the official agenda in closed premises or allowing these same figures to enter the Palace despite having judicial restrictions have unleashed the storm.
Now it turns out that these meetings were not the only ones that the president held with citizens of Chinese origin. In total there were 23 attendees.
As Peru21 was able to verify in the record of official visits to the Government Palace, from October 10, 2025 to January 20, 2026, José Jerí or some Presidency authority have met with 32 Asian figures at four different addresses: General Secretariat of the Presidential Office, Undersecretary of Strategic Communication and Institutional Image, Secretariat of Strategic Communication and Press and the Presidency itself.
Jung-Hee Lee, Tae-Sung Om and Yena Gea were the first to arrive at the Palace and the only ones to hold a meeting directly with President José Jerí in his office on December 1, 2025.
On the 10th of that same month, Peng Li and Shui Yu entered the Presidency and had a meeting with the secretary general of the Presidential Office, Benito Villanueva. Two days later, Ji Wu Xiaodong (with a house arrest order and links to illegal logging), Li Hongbin, Zhihua Yang (Jerí’s friend) visited Mirelia Liz Cano Gutiérrez, executive of the Directorate of Strategic Communication and Institutional Image of the Secretariat of Strategic Communication and Press of the Palace.
Six days later, Chinese journalist Hou Jiaqui and Wang Lulu (who in 2024 registered as a representative of the private company CCTV) appeared before the same official. On December 29, the presence of the two Chinese businessmen already mentioned and the citizen Wang Yi was observed. They interviewed Johanna Mercedes Ocampo Santos De Velaochaga, Secretary of Strategic Communication and Press of the Presidential Office.
The dates on which the most visits to Presidency officials are observed are January 5, 9 and 15, 2026. The aforementioned offices were attended by 5, 9 and 7 Chinese citizens. The reasons shown as justification for the multiple appointments registered in the transparency portal are: “work meeting” and “individual”.
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