Erasmo Wong Lu
{{Short description|Peruvian civil engineer}}
{{family name hatnote|Wong|Lu Vega|lang=Spanish}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
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| name = Erasmo Wong Lu
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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1943}}
| birth_place = Lima, Peru
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| education = Civil Engineering
| alma_mater = Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería
| occupation = Businessman
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| organization = Corporación E.Wong
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| mother = Angela Lidia Lu Vega
| father = Erasmo Wong Chiang
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Erasmo Wong Lu Vega is a Peruvian civil engineer and businessman.{{Cite journal|date=December 2012|title=Premios Inmigración 2012|journal=Integración|volume=22}}{{Cite journal|last=Velásquez|first=Renato|date=13 December 2019|title=Los herederos del dragón|journal=Cosas}} 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. As a child, Wong was kept busy with piano, accordion, shorthand and typing lessons. 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.
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.{{Cite web|date=25 May 2012|title=United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form F-1 Registrartion Statement Under the Securities Act of 1933: Cencosud S.A.|url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1544856/000119312512249390/d343004df1.htm|website=United States Securities and Exchange Commission}}
Career
Wong and his brother Edgardo established a poultry farm and tended it for seventeen years. 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,{{Cite web|url=https://cosas.pe/personalidades/170729/los-herederos-del-dragon-a-170-anos-de-la-inmigracion-china-en-el-peru/| title=The heirs of the dragon: 170 years after Chinese immigration in Peru|access-date=July 12, 2021|date=January 3, 2020|website=Things|language=es-PE}} 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.{{Cite book|last1=Look Lai|first1=Walton|title=The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean|last2=Tan|first2=Chee-Beng|publisher=Brill Publishers|year=2010|isbn=978-9004193345}} 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. In 1992 he was recognized as The Entrepreneur of the Year by IPAE - Instituto Peruano de Administración de Empresas.{{Cite book|title=E. Wong stores: an organizational analysis|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/858886968|publisher=Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú|access-date=2021-12-01|oclc=858886968|first1=Álvaro|last1=Calado Bryce|year=2004|last2=Castro|first2=María Del Rosario}}
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.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=16 December 2007|title=Chile's Cencosud to acquire Peru's Grupo Wong|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/chile-cencosud-wong-idUSN1633141720071216|access-date=12 July 2021}} He still is a member of the Wong supermarket's board of directors.
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.{{Cite web|title=Willax|url=https://peru.mom-rsf.org/en/media/detail/outlet/willax/|access-date=12 July 2021|website=Reporters Without Borders|language=en}} In November 2015, Wong purchased Willax Televisión,{{Cite web|date=3 December 2015|title=Grupo Wong entra a competir en Tv de señal abierta con Willax|url=http://gestion.pe/empresas/grupo-wong-entra-competir-tv-senal-abierta-willax-2149953|url-status=live|access-date=7 July 2021|website=Gestion|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151203204559/http://gestion.pe/empresas/grupo-wong-entra-competir-tv-senal-abierta-willax-2149953|archive-date=3 December 2015}} a television channel that has since been described as promoting conservative and right-wing political stances by international media outlets.{{Cite news|last1=Taj|first1=Mitra|last2=Turkewitz|first2=Julie|date=4 July 2021|title=Fraud Claims, Unproved, Delay Peru's Election Result and Energize the Right|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/world/americas/peru-president-election-right-wing.html|access-date=7 July 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|last=Budasoff|first=Joseph Zárate, Eliezer|date=10 April 2021|title=Rafael López Aliaga: the creation of a far-right candidate in Peru|url=https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-04-10/rafael-lopez-aliaga-the-creation-of-a-far-right-candidate-in-peru.html|access-date=7 July 2021|website=El País|language=en}}
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.{{Cite web|first=Alexander|last=Burns|title=Giuliani loses election – in Peru|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2011/06/giuliani-loses-election-in-peru-056325|access-date=21 February 2021|website=Politico|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=11 October 2019|title=Tribunal Constitucional {{!}} Gonzalo Ortiz de Zevallos {{!}} Coinciden en que Ortiz de Zevallos no está calificado para entrar al Tribunal Constitucional|url=https://peru21.pe/politica/tribunal-constitucional-gonzalo-ortiz-de-zevallos-coinciden-en-que-ortiz-de-zevallos-no-esta-calificado-para-entrar-al-tribunal-constitucional-noticia/|access-date=7 July 2021|website=Peru.21|language=es}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=23 October 2019|title=Augusto Álvarez Rodrich: La DBA reloaded|url=https://larepublica.pe/politica/2019/10/23/augusto-alvarez-rodrich-la-dba-reloaded/|access-date=7 July 2021|website=La Republica|language=es-PE}} According to journalist Augusto Álvarez Rodrich, Wong was included in the Operation Caledonia group, Rafael López Aliaga and the Popular Force politician José Chlimper.
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. According to Look Lai and Tan, Wong had a net worth of US$500 million in 2010. He collects luxury cars, including various Porsche 911s, Ferraris, and a McLaren 720S.
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.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=29 June 2021|title=Keiko Fujimori deslinda de la violencia que incita López Aliaga|url=https://peru21.pe/politica/keiko-fujimori-deslinda-de-la-violencia-que-incita-lopez-aliaga-noticia/|access-date=12 July 2021|website=Peru21|language=es}} He also funded Fujimori's campaign for the 2011 Peruvian general election.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=21 June 2018|title=Fiscalía cita a los empresarios más ricos del Perú por caso de aportes Keiko Fujimori|url=https://larepublica.pe/politica/1265472-fiscalia-cita-empresarios-ricos-peru-caso-aportes-keiko-fujimori/|access-date=12 July 2021|website=La República|language=es-PE}} 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".{{Cite web|title=Carta de Madrid|url=https://fundaciondisenso.org/carta-de-madrid/|access-date=2021-12-07|website=Fundación Disenso|language=es}}{{Cite web|title=Vox estrecha lazos con derecha peruana y suma firmas a su pacto anticomunista|url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/per%C3%BA-pol%C3%ADtica_vox-estrecha-lazos-con-derecha-peruana-y-suma-firmas-a-su-pacto-anticomunista/46974610|access-date=2021-12-07|website=EFE|language=es}}