Erasmo Wong Lu

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Wong and the second or maternal family name is Lu Vega.

Erasmo Wong Lu
Born1943 (age 80–81)
Lima, Peru
EducationCivil Engineering
Alma materUniversidad Nacional de Ingeniería
OccupationBusinessman
OrganizationCorporación E.Wong
Parents
  • Erasmo Wong Chiang (father)
  • Angela Lidia Lu Vega (mother)

Erasmo Wong Lu Vega is a Peruvian civil engineer and businessman.[1][2] He is the current owner of Willax Televisión and the Shopping Centers Lima Plaza Norte and Mall del Sur.

Early life and education

Erasmo Wong Lu, a Chinese Peruvian, was born in Lima in 1943. He was son of Erasmo Wong Chiang, a Chinese immigrant and entrepreneur and Angela Lu Vega, who owned a corner store-grocery and bazaar in the district of San Isidro in Lima. His father arrived in Peru at the age of eleven.[3] As a child, Wong was kept busy with piano, accordion, shorthand and typing lessons.[3] He lived in an apartment in the upper class San Isidro District, he helped his parents along with his brothers in the family store and attended the private school Colegio San Andrés.[3]

For his university education, Wong graduated with a civil engineering degree from the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria and earned postgraduate degrees in management from the University of Piura.[4]

Career

Wong and his brother Edgardo established a poultry farm and tended it for seventeen years.[3] In 1983 together with his father and brothers, and with the vision of being the best store in Lima, they founded the supermarket chain Wong,[3] Eventually, Erasmo Wong Jr. became the head of his family's supermarket chain, also opening the supermarket chain Metro that then employed over 8,000 employees, advancing the company past Chilean competitors.[5] Under the government of Alberto Fujimori, which surrounded itself with many Asian collaborators, spanning into the period of China's growing presence in Peru during the early 21st century, Wong began to approach Chinese entrepreneurs and the elite in Peru, establishing a higher social status in the process.[5] In 1992 he was recognized as The Entrepreneur of the Year by IPAE - Instituto Peruano de Administración de Empresas.[6]

In December 2007, Wong supermarkets – which controlled sixty-two percent of Lima's grocery market at the time – was purchased from Wong's family by the Chilean retailer Cencosud for US$500 million.[7] He still is a member of the Wong supermarket's board of directors.[4]

Since moving away from supermarkets, Wong has become the head of E W Corporation, which established many enterprises in the British Virgin Islands and Panama.[8] In November 2015, Wong purchased Willax Televisión,[9] a television channel that has since been described as promoting conservative and right-wing political stances by international media outlets.[10][11]

Perú.21 reported in 2019 that a group of Peruvian investors attempted to purchase the journalist branch of El Comercio Group in what was called "Operation Caledonia", with the operation reportedly receiving assistance of former mayor of New York City and Keiko Fujimori's former advisor, Rudy Giuliani.[12][13][14] According to journalist Augusto Álvarez Rodrich, Wong was included in the Operation Caledonia group, Rafael López Aliaga and the Popular Force politician José Chlimper.[14]

Personal life

In 1999, Erasmo Wong Lu founded the Peruvian Chinese Association and its his currently President and also Director of its official magazine Integración. He lives in a home decorated with Chinese art.[3] According to Look Lai and Tan, Wong had a net worth of US$500 million in 2010.[5] He collects luxury cars, including various Porsche 911s, Ferraris, and a McLaren 720S.[2][3]

Politically, he has been involved in promoting rallies for right-wing politicians in Peru, especially for Keiko Fujimori and Rafael López Aliaga during the 2021 Peruvian general election.[15] He also funded Fujimori's campaign for the 2011 Peruvian general election.[8][16] Wong Lu signed the Madrid Charter, a document drafted by the far-right Spanish party Vox that describes left-wing groups as enemies of Ibero-America involved in a "criminal project" that are "under the umbrella of the Cuban regime".[17][18]

References

  1. ^ "Premios Inmigración 2012". Integración. 22. December 2012.
  2. ^ a b Velásquez, Renato (13 December 2019). "Los herederos del dragón". Cosas.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "The heirs of the dragon: 170 years after Chinese immigration in Peru". Things (in Spanish). 3 January 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b "United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form F-1 Registrartion Statement Under the Securities Act of 1933: Cencosud S.A." United States Securities and Exchange Commission. 25 May 2012.
  5. ^ a b c Look Lai, Walton; Tan, Chee-Beng (2010). The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-9004193345.
  6. ^ Calado Bryce, Álvaro; Castro, María Del Rosario (2004). E. Wong stores: an organizational analysis. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. OCLC 858886968. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
  7. ^ "Chile's Cencosud to acquire Peru's Grupo Wong". Reuters. 16 December 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Willax". Reporters Without Borders. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Grupo Wong entra a competir en Tv de señal abierta con Willax". Gestion. 3 December 2015. Archived from the original on 3 December 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  10. ^ Taj, Mitra; Turkewitz, Julie (4 July 2021). "Fraud Claims, Unproved, Delay Peru's Election Result and Energize the Right". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  11. ^ Budasoff, Joseph Zárate, Eliezer (10 April 2021). "Rafael López Aliaga: the creation of a far-right candidate in Peru". El País. Retrieved 7 July 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Burns, Alexander. "Giuliani loses election – in Peru". Politico. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  13. ^ "Tribunal Constitucional | Gonzalo Ortiz de Zevallos | Coinciden en que Ortiz de Zevallos no está calificado para entrar al Tribunal Constitucional". Peru.21 (in Spanish). 11 October 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  14. ^ a b "Augusto Álvarez Rodrich: La DBA reloaded". La Republica (in Spanish). 23 October 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  15. ^ "Keiko Fujimori deslinda de la violencia que incita López Aliaga". Peru21 (in Spanish). 29 June 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  16. ^ "Fiscalía cita a los empresarios más ricos del Perú por caso de aportes Keiko Fujimori". La República (in Spanish). 21 June 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  17. ^ "Carta de Madrid". Fundación Disenso (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  18. ^ "Vox estrecha lazos con derecha peruana y suma firmas a su pacto anticomunista". EFE (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 December 2021.