Relations of Wen
Jiabao, the Chinese premier, have denied amassing a multi-billion-dollar
fortune and threatened legal action against The New York Times.
| by Malcolm
Moore, Beijing
The Telegraph,
London
( October 29,
2012, Beijing, Sri Lanka Guardian) A statement from lawyers reportedly
representing Mr Wen’s family was published yesterday in the South China Morning
Post, after the US paper reported it had uncovered a $2.7 billion (£1.68
billion) fortune.
“The so-called
'hidden riches’ of Wen Jiabao’s family members in the New York Times report
[do] not exist,” the statement said.
It is the first
time that one of Communist party’s top leaders has issued a rebuttal to a
foreign newspaper report and is a sign of how damaging the revelations have
been to Mr Wen, 70.
The New York
Times spent roughly a year scrutinising corporate and regulatory filings, using
lawyers or consulting firms to request “thousands of pages of corporate
documents” in order to piece together the business networks and financial
interests of Mr Wen’s relatives.
It said it had
pulled in documents from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen, as well as
other cities. Those documents revealed, according to the newspaper, that in
2007 Mr Wen’s family had a stake of $2.2 billion in Ping An, which it bought
before the giant Chinese insurance company came to market. HSBC owns around 16
per cent of Ping An.
The New York
Times also said Mr Wen’s 90-year-old mother, a former teacher, had a
$120 million stake in Ping An. This was denied by the Beijing lawyers.
Their statement
said some members of Mr Wen’s family were active in business, but they “did not
carry out any illegal business activity” and they “do not hold the shares of
any companies”.
The lawyers said
they would “continue to make clarifications regarding other untrue reports by
the New York Times and reserve the right to hold it legally responsible”.
The US
newspaper’s website has been inaccessible in China since Friday, and the
Communist party may take action against the paper’s new Chinese service.
After weekend
protests by thousands of people in Ningbo over pollution fears, Chinese
officials agreed that a petrochemical factory would not be expanded, only to
see the demonstration continue.
Further protests
would upset the calm mood that Chinese leaders want for a smooth transfer of
power at the Communist Party congress next month.
