Li’s father, wife arrive from China
The 880 Duty Free team. (Contributed Photo)
The 65-year-old father and wife of missing Saipan Fresh Market owner Zhi Yuan Li arrived on Saipan yesterday from China.
Li’s two brothers picked up their father and Li’s wife at 4am yesterday at the Saipan International Airport.
One brother, who owns Vegetable Plus, told Saipan Tribune yesterday that they really don’t know what happened to their 43-year-old brother Li.
The brother, who requested anonymity, said somebody called Li’s cellphone on Saturday at about 1:42pm. It reportedly rang but nobody replied. He said the phone was later turned off.
“We are still searching and hoping he is okay. Many people in the community know him. He is a very good person,” the brother said.
He said his brother first came to Tinian in 1997 where he worked at the Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino. Li then moved to Saipan the following year.
The brother opened his Vegetable Plus store only yesterday since he closed it on Sunday as they were so busy searching for Li throughout the island.
An employee of Saipan Fresh Market stated that Li is a quiet and nice person.
“He is a good employer,” the employee said.
Saipan Fresh Market resumed operations yesterday after being closed since Sunday. Li’s girlfriend is now operating the store.
A family member said Li is already separated from his wife.
Li was reportedly last seen on Saturday at 11am seeing a friend at a tire shop in Puerto Rico. His family reported his disappearance to police on Saturday at 7:56pm.
Li has two daughters—ages 13 and 23—on Saipan.
Buenas,
In the underground world, it is very easy to get financial assistance for your business start up. But when the time comes to pay your loan back with big fat interest, it must be paid in a timely manner or you would pay with your life. There are many laws in our books to protect our society, but enforcing them is a different story. Asian underground groups are merciless and they do not play games. Our law enforcement agency should be train to penetrate and start solving criminal acts done by our underground society to protect our citizens. There is a price to pay for our society as a whole for wanting to advance our economic stature. There would be more criminal acts in the future in our island chain and we would have to brace ourselves for the worse.
Si Yu’us Ma’ase
Hello Jun… I notice your post below this article. Are you suggesting that Mr. Li had unpaid dues that caught up with him? Or should the readers of your post consider the post a speculative one? Just curious…
Buenas JTiu,
People don’t get kill or murdered for no reason at all and I am referring to the unsolved criminal acts in the past. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to interpret your surrounding. Our government needs to address the unsolved crimes. One way of addressing such predicaments is to understand how the underworld group operates and to put a stop to the killings. Such cases in the CNMI reminds me of the Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) mentality.
Si Yu’us Ma’ase
I don’t think we need to speculate anymore. Why else would people from one family disappear or be murdered?Underworld society here on Saipan is threatening our future. I am a highschool student. My Chinese classmate told me that all the people who have been murdered in the past years are all from the same province, Fujian. Do your research on this province and you will find that they are a big part of underworld crime activity involving international drug trade and human trafficking. Not to mention that they send groups of Chinese women here to birth their children. We are nothing but a stepping stone. In result to this our local people are being victimized. Women abused by men who are high on meth. Children watching tv on the side while meth is cooked in their home kitchen. Innocent teenagers robbed of their belongings all to pay the price of a meth heads addiction. Please wake up.
Buenas northsea,
I am not a high school student or have a Chinese classmate, but I can tell you I grew up with the Asian communities in the United States and I learned a lot from such ethnicities. They are one of the most successful groups throughout the United States and they instill a culture within a culture. They have their owns rules, ways of doing business and their underground world is merciless. Try interpreting the bucket concept, and that is when people get killed. Such practices amount to extortion in our judicial system and it is a common practice to some in the United States.
“If it looks like a rat, smells like a rat, and walk like a rat, it must be a rat,” and we don’t need to speculate to say it is a rat. As human being, we tend to interpret things within our surrounding and speculating is part of being a human.
Si Yu’us Ma’ase