Peruvian President, José Enrique Jerí, 39, is facing backlash this week from opposition lawmakers in Peru over a pair of meetings with an influential Chinese businessman, outside of the president’s official agenda.
Zhihua Yang, a Chinese national who owns a chain of commercial stores and has a handling on a major energy concession from the Peruvian government, is at the center of a major scandal facing the interim President Jerí just three months into his administration.
Critics raised alarm over an initial meeting that the president had with Yang during a dinner at a restaurant in Lima in late December.
Jerí issued an apology for meeting with the Chinese businessman, stating that he had attended the dinner to coordinate the celebration of another anniversary of Peruvian-Chinese friendship, and denied having received an “irregular request” to meet with Yang.
“I admit my mistake. And I publicly apologize for entering the meeting with the businessman the way I did, hidden... giving rise to suspicions and doubts about my behavior,” said Jerí.
Shortly after the public apology from the president, a second unrecorded meeting with Yang, on Jan. 6, was revealed to the public, raising further suspicions among lawmakers in Lima.
Members of the Peruvian Congress in Lima have vowed a vote to censure the interim president, who assumed the office after predecessor Dina Boluarte was removed from the presidency due to a lack of confidence and a plummeting disapproval rating (which was the lowest in Latin America).
Jerí is currently the eighth Peruvian president to take office since 2018 after a series of resignations and impeachments during the last decade, preoccupied with tremendous uproar and political instability.
On Tuesday, Jerí requested to present himself before the legislative body “in light of the country's need for matters of public interest to be clarified with transparency and responsibility,” Jerí said in a letter submitted to Congress.
On Wednesday before the committee, the acting president claimed of a destabilizing attempt to “generate instability and disrupt an electoral process that is currently underway.” Jerí added:
“There has been an attempt to distort an ordinary activity that I occasionally carry out, after my daily duties, by portraying it as involving irregular or unlawful acts. I want to be very clear on this point, Mr. Chairman, and through you I say that I have not lied to the country.”
The scandal, now labeled Chifagate by media outlets, quickly became national when Peruvian broadcaster Punto Final published images showing the president entering a chifa–a local term used to describe a restaurant that blends traditional Peruvian and Chinese cuisine–dressed in a white hoodie and sitting down with Mr. Yang.
Jerí stated before Congress that there was also a “chance meeting” with the Chifa restaurant owner, but assured members that “...there was no irregular content and no unlawful content in the meeting, but rather a chance conversation in which, Mr. Chairman, the topic of Peru-China Friendship Day—scheduled for February 1 of this year—was discussed.”
Although analysts assess that a censure vote may be possible, an outright removal of Jerí from office is unlikely, noting that about two-thirds of Peruvian lawmakers are seeking reelection, opting for political stability heading into April’s general elections.
Jerí vowed to lawmakers:
“From the first day I took on this responsibility, I said: I won't be a traditional president; I will be a president who remains the same and is not boxed in by labels. That strength—which was always mine during my four years of parliamentary service—they have sought to use against me.”
