MCLC: another Wen family revelation

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: ALVARO Joseph <joseph.alvaro at my.cityu.edu.hk>
Subject: another Wen family revelation
***********************************************************

Dear All,

This is an interesting and revelatory article on Wen Jiabao's
daughter-princess, but I think no one is surprised anymore. We are
de-sensitized to collusion and favor-buying. And that is the sad part.
The corruption is spreading slowly and incrementally and there are now
many eager takers in the West.

Joe Alavaro

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Source: The Telegraph (6/11/14):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10891469/Chinas-Red-Da
ughter-whose-charity-gave-Cambridge-3.7-million.html

China's 'Red Daughter' whose charity gave Cambridge £3.7 million
Who is the former Chinese prime minister's daughter controls the charity
behind a £3.7 million donation to Cambridge University? Wen Ruchun is a
fully-fledged member of China's 'red nobility'
By Tom Phillips 

In early 2012, when speculation about links between the mysterious Chong
Hua Foundation and the Chinese government first emerged, Cambridge
University insisted it knew of no connection between the two.

The revelation that Chong Hua is controlled by Wen Ruchun – a
fully-fledged member of China's "red nobility" – suggests Cambridge should
urgently review those findings.

For Ms Wen enjoys extremely close ties to the highest echelons of the
Communist Party – she is the only daughter of Wen Jiabao, the country's
prime minister between 2003 and 2013.

And in China – a highly secretive and autocratic state where politics,
business and family are so heavily intertwined as to be effectively
inseparable – the ramifications of such a relationship are obvious and
inescapable.

Wen Jiabao, nicknamed "Grandpa Wen" because of his reputation for
concerning himself with China's poor, stepped down from his position in
2013 but continues to wield influence within the party and has maintained
a high public profile since leaving office.

The 71-year-old is also known for his interest in education: last October,
a collection of his musings on the topic were published under the title:
"Wen Jiabao on Education".

Details of Wen Ruchun's personal life are few and far between, as is the
case with most members of the red aristocracy, the small and privileged
Communist elite that controls China's politics and much of its economy.

She studied at the People's Liberation Army's University of International
Relations in Nanjing and went to the United States in the mid-1990s,
according to a 2012 report in a Hong Kong magazine that could not
immediately be verified.

Ms Wen, who also uses the name Lily Chang, graduated from the University
of Delaware in 1998, and went on to live in Trump Place, a luxury property
overlooking the Hudson River, the New York Times reported last year.

Like many US-educated princelings, she rose fast in Wall Street. Ms Wen
worked at Lehman Brothers and later what was then Credit Suisse First
Boston, according to the New York Times.

Between 2006 and 2008, she reportedly earned £1.1 million in consultant
fees from JP Morgan.

Family members refer to her as "Xiao Meng" or the Little Sprout, according
to reports in the Hong Kong press.

Ms Wen also has links to the UK. She is thought to have lived in Cambridge
for a period when Liu Chunhang, her husband, was studying for his PhD
there.

Mr Liu has been head of the statistics and research departments at China's
banking regulator since 2006, according to online biographies.

Meanwhile, Ms Wen holds a high-powered job at the Beijing-based State
Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE) where she is understood to have
worked for more than a decade.

Founded in 1979 by the Communist Party's powerful State Council, SAFE is
tasked with investing almost $4 million of Chinese foreign exchange
reserves.

In the wake of the initial controversy over Chong Hua's potential
connections to China's Communist rulers
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9050447/Mystery-o
f-Cambridge-Universitys-3.7-million-Chinese-benefactors.html>, Tim Holt,
Cambridge's head of communications, told The Telegraph the donation had
"been scrutinised formally by the executive committee of our university
council, in line with our published ethical guidelines for the acceptance
of donations".

"Our investigation did not identify any link between this private
foundation and the Chinese government," he added.

The revelation that the former Chinese prime minister's daughter controls
the charity behind the gift suggests it should have looked harder.