MCLC: hidden riches (2)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Timothy J.T. Pi <timothy.pi at gmail.com>
Subject: hidden riches (2)
***********************************************************

Source: Epoch Times (10/27/12):
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/new-york-times-story-planted-by-
beijing-faction-says-news-website-307799.html

New York Times Wen Jiabao Story: Independent, or Used by Beijing Faction?
By Stephen Gregory

A lengthy expose by The New York Times detailing the wealth of Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao’s family has sparked controversy over the origins of
the report and uses to which it may be put. At issue is whether the story
was planted to advance the political interests of the faction of disgraced
Politburo member Bo Xilai, or whether the story is the product of the NY
Times’ own research, done without regard for political consequences inside
China.

On Oct. 25, The New York Times published a 4,700-word report that
describes the vast wealth amassed by members of Premier Wen Jiabao’s
family—said to total US$2.7 billion—and how Wen’s family members traded on
his name and influence to make the deals that made that fortune.
Boxun 
<http://www.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2012/10/201210270118.shtml#.UIs5-6MpB8e
>, a Chinese-language news website based outside of China, anticipated The
>New York Times report in an article published on Oct. 23, Beijing time,
>describing how information that sounds very similar to what would soon
>appear in The New York Times had been widely shopped to Chinese and
>English-language media by a “conservative faction.”
Boxun wrote, “a number of American mainstream English-language media have
also received a lot of detailed material” about Wen Jiabao. That
information was part of an ongoing effort by a “conservative faction” to
attack its opponents in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to
Boxun.

In an Oct. 26 broadcast, Voice of America
<http://www.voachinese.com/content/pc-20121026/1534092.html>quoted Beijing
reporter Dong Fang as saying that all of the media had received the same
information on Wen as was published by The New York Times. The information
came with audited material according to Dong.

The publisher of an independent Chinese-language news website, speaking
anonymously said in a phone interview that whenever Korean, Japanese, or
Western media publish detailed reports about the secrets of CCP officials,
“the reports are fed to them. These media can never develop this kind of
information on their own.”

Around 10:30 p.m. ET Oct. 26, The New York Times published an article in
which David Barboza, the author of the piece on the Wen family’s wealth,
explained how he got the information.

According to Barboza, most corporate and financial records are publicly
available to news organizations in China, and “beginning late last year,
The Times reviewed documents obtained in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin,
Shenzhen, and other cities.

“The records allowed The Times to trace a network of friends and relatives
of the prime minister as they built a multibillion-dollar business empire
over the last decade, often with the aid of wealthy entrepreneurs.”

A $2.2 Billion DisagreementSince The Times article about Wen’s family was
published, two articles have called into question the account it gives of
the wealth the family is said to have acquired.

The New York-based Chinese-language website Mingjing interviewed Ms. Duan
Weihong, who features prominently in The Times report. Duan is identified
as the conduit for the Wen family acquiring stock in Ping An Insurance
Company, which would grow to be worth US$2.2 billion.

The Mingjing article confirms The Times did research for its article on
Wen’s family—Duan spoke with Mingjing of being interviewed by The New York
Times. In the interview with Mingjing, Duan emphasized that she told The
Times that the stock shares in the name of members of the Wen family were
in fact owned by her, which The New York Times reported.

The New York Times and the Mingjing accounts differ over the current
ownership of the stock shares. The Times reports the company’s records
were no longer public after 2008, but assumes the Wen family gained US$2.2
billion in wealth from the stock.

Duan told Mingjing News that after 2008, all shareholders left her
company, and all the shares were put under her name. “But New York Times’
reporter didn’t take note of my words at all,” she told Mingjing.
Mingjing commented, “If this is true, not a dime from the US$2.2 billion
in stocks went into the accounts of Wen’s relatives.”

In an article published on Oct. 27 Beijing time, Boxun also takes a look
at the Duan-Wen connection.
According to Boxun’s Beijing reporter, Wen’s family members held stock in
Ping An between 2004 and 2005, when Duan used those people’s IDs to
purchase the shares.

According to Boxun, Ping An became a listed company in 2008, and Wen’s
relatives had all left the company by then. Ping An started becoming
profitable in 2009. Duan has kept records that prove her account,
according to Boxun.

Boxun claims The Times cannot prove that Wen’s relatives made US$2.2
billion in profits on the Ping An stock. Boxun asks, if the Wen family did
not make the US$2.2 billion The Times claimed, what about the other US$.5
billion?

‘Ulterior Motives’The New York Times article about Wen’s family touched a
nerve in Beijing—the paper’s website was immediately blocked in China.

On Friday in Beijing, according to Voice of America, the Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei condemned The New York Times article as
having an agenda, telling reporters that it was meant to “smear China” and
had “ulterior motives.”

The New York Times spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy, responded to the criticism
by saying that the paper refused to compromise its journalistic standards
and would not adjust its reporting “based on the demands of the Chinese
government,” according to VOA’s report.

The Times article acknowledges political agendas may be served by it. An
anonymous former colleague of Wen’s is quoted as saying, “His enemies are
intentionally trying to smear him by letting this leak out.”
The Times also reports that the news about the Wen family’s wealth may
weaken Wen politically in advance of the crucial 18th Party Congress. At
that Congress, set to convene on Nov. 8, a new generation of CCP leaders
will be named.

The former head of China affairs for the currently-out-of-power DPP Party
in Taiwan, Dong Li-wen, is quoted by Radio France Internationale as saying
the NY Times article “is directly related to the power struggle ahead of
the 18th Party Congress. Wen Jiabao has long maintained a tough political
stance, and this article may be retaliation for Wen supporting or opposing
certain Politburo members. His opponents might have leaked the information
to foreign media.”

‘Conservative Faction’Boxun wrote of “heavyweight information” about Wen’s
family distributed by a conservative faction that uses “long-term careful
planning and comprehensive materials obtained by personnel in government
departments” in orchestrating attacks on its opponents.

Boxun mentioned as a previous example an article in June by Bloomberg that
talked about the wealth of the family of the presumptive next head of the
CCP, Xi Jinping, who is considered an enemy by the conservative faction.

Bloomberg’s article relied on a massive amount of material, including over
1,000 pages about Xi’s family and their companies, all collated, including
even copies of these people’s identity cards and photos of their
residences, according to Boxun.

The material circulated about Wen Jiabao was said to be similarly
thorough. According to Boxun, the information was “exhaustive” in its
detail and included “information on Wen’s son Wen Yunsong’s business
dealings, including even the monthly bulletins.”

Boxun said the conservative faction sought to achieve a “the effect of a
stereoscopic assault.”

“From this it can be seen that if there were no people in the state
apparatus helping collect this material, it would be impossible to get
this kind of highly confidential information,” Boxun wrote.

Boxun said the conservative faction sought to achieve a “the effect of a
stereoscopic assault.” In the cases of the attack on Xi Jinping in June
and the current attack on Wen Jiabao, the information used was circulated
to both English-language and Chinese-language media in the hopes of
getting simultaneous coverage in both.

Ongoing Information WarBoxun places the information circulated about Wen
Jiabao’s family in the context of ongoing attempts by the now disgraced
former Party heavyweight Bo Xilai and others to use “large resources and
manpower to continually launch media attacks on Wen Jiabao and his family
members in the past few years.”

An information war being waged as part of the power struggle going on in
China has been reported on by others, including The Epoch Times.

According to an article published by Hong Kong’s Open Magazine
<http://www.open.com.hk/content.php?id=763> in May, when Bo Xilai’s former
Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun attempted to defect at the U.S.
Consulate in Chengdu in February, among the items he brought with him were
documents detailing orders Bo Xilai gave to attack top leaders, including
Wen Jiabao, by spreading information online.

The Epoch Times 
<http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/exclusive-zhou-yongkang-and-bo-
xilai-conspired-to-force-google-out-of-china-224918-all.html> published an
exclusive report in April that described how Bo Xilai and the domestic
security czar Zhou Yongkang worked in 2009 and 2010 with the Chinese
search engine Baidu to drive Google out of China.

Based on information provided by a high-ranking government official in
Beijing, the article described how Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang did this in
order to use Baidu to attack their opponents.

According to investigative reports by the CCP’s Committee for Disciplinary
Inspection, Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang came up with a “very detailed plan
to achieve a powerful online campaign against [CCP head] Hu Jintao, Wen
Jiabao, and Xi Jinping.”

Articles published in 2010 on Baidu as a result of Bo and Zhou’s efforts
had titles such as “Hu Jintao’s Son Terribly Corrupt, Jiang Zemin Wants to
Get to the Bottom of It,” and “Xi Jinping is a Lecher, Plays With Women in
Zhejiang Behind His Second Wife.”

A more recent example of this kind of manipulation of the media occurred
this past August, when Chinese-language media outside China and Western
media carried stories claiming that Hu Jintao was planning on resigning
from the Central Military Commission. According to an Epoch Times source,
these stories were planted by domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang, a
member of the faction formed by former CCP head Jiang Zemin.

Rumors of Hu Jintao “resigning completely” could degrade his power inside
the CCP, and he was forced to have former Hong Kong chief executive Tung
Chee-hwa deny them in an interview he gave to CNN on Sept. 19.
Boxun emphasized the role of Bo Xilai and an unspecified “conservative
faction” in arranging for the distribution to media of the information
about the wealth of Wen Jiabao’s family. How Bo could have had any recent,
direct involvement is not clear. He is currently in Qincheng Prison in
Beijing.

Bo Xilai is very closely identified with Jiang Zemin’s faction.

Bo Xilai is very closely identified with Jiang Zemin’s faction. When Jiang
began his campaign in July, 1999 to eradicate the spiritual practice of
Falun Gong, Bo enthusiastically implemented the persecution.
The Epoch Times has reported previously how Jiang’s faction, which has
lost its hold on power, is now seeking to avoid being held accountable for
the atrocities committed during the still ongoing persecution of Falun
Gong, leading to a continuing power struggle.
According to Boxun, “behind the scenes the conservative faction is
manipulating things.”

With research by Jane Lin and Matthew Robertson.