Born in 1955 in Yulin, Guangxi, Zhang Ziqiang was smuggled into Hong Kong by his parents at the age of four. From a poor boy in the squatter settlements of Yau Ma Tei, he rose step by step to become the “Century’s Most Feared King of Thieves,” dreaded throughout Asia. In 1991, he held up an armored cash-in-transit van at Kai Tak Airport at gunpoint and made off with HK$160 million. After his arrest, however, his wife, Luo Yanfang, managed the media narrative while top lawyers turned the case around. He was not only acquitted, but also awarded HK$8 million in compensation by the British Hong Kong authorities. After that, he grew even more brazen. In 1996, he kidnapped Li Ka-shing’s eldest son, Victor Li, stormed the Li residence with a bomb strapped to his waist, and extorted HK$1.038 billion. In 1997, he kidnapped Sun Hung Kai Properties chairman Walter Kwok and demanded HK$600 million. He also plotted to kidnap Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, smuggled 818 kilograms of explosives, and planned to blow up Stanley Prison to rescue his accomplice, Yip Kai-fan. But in January 1998, the arrogant king of thieves was captured at the Outer Sea Bridge in Jiangmen, Guangdong. After a battle of wits with the two pretrial experts known as “the Two Lins,” Zhang Ziqiang met his end in a Guangzhou courtroom: on December 5, he was executed. An era of madness came to a close.
