So who is mysterious ‘fortune teller’ courted by disgraced Zhou Yongkang and Chinese elite?

The disgraced security tsar Zhou Yongkang once had a legion of trusted aides taking care of his graft schemes. But none of them was a match for the mysterious “Xinjiang sage” when it came to Zhou confiding in state secrets.

When the Tianjin court read out its verdict on Zhou on Thursday, it was revealed that he had handed six classified documents – five of which were top secret – to 56-year-old Cao Yongzheng.

Cao – dubbed the Xinjiang sage after the region where he grew up – has previously been identified by Chinese media as a soothsayer, mystic and expert in qigong, a Chinese spiritual martial art similar to tai chi.

He is reported to have provided testimony against Zhou in a closed-door trial in the northern city of Tianjin on May 22, the Xinhua news agency said, although it was unclear whether he had done so in person or by deposition, or if he was also in custody.

Yet what do we know about Cao, a billionaire reputed to have the “extraordinary” ability to predict the future, who was courted by many of China’s most powerful senior officials?

A Southern Weekly report in 2013 said that Zhou had introduced Cao to other people as his “most trusted person”.