The future of a secretive Hong Kong-based business network at the heart of China’s advance into Africa has been thrown into doubt after reports its frontman, a tycoon with seven names and ties to the intelligence services, is involved in a Communist party investigation.

Sam Pa, as the bespectacled tycoon is best known, was detained at a hotel in Beijing on October 8, according to a report in Caixin magazine and a person familiar with the matter. Mr Pa, who has cultivated relationships with dictators from Harare to Pyongyang in pursuit of deals in resources and infrastructure worth billions of dollars, could not be reached on his usual phone numbers.

Mr Pa’s detention came a day after Chinese state media announced Su Shulin, the governor of Fujian Province and ex-chairman of state-owned oil group Sinopec, was being investigated for “suspected serious disciplinary offences”.