MCLC: Wen family responds to NYT report

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Wen family responds to NYT report
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Source: NYT (10/27/10):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/world/asia/chinese-premiers-family-disput
es-article-on-riches.html

Chinese Premier’s Family Disputes Article on Riches
By KEITH BRADSHER 

HONG KONG — Two lawyers who said they represented the family of Prime
Minister Wen Jiabao of China have issued a statement disputing aspects of
a New York Times article about the family’s wealth, a rare instance of a
powerful Chinese political family responding directly to a foreign media
report.

The statement, published in The South China Morning Post on Sunday, said,
“The so-called ‘hidden riches’ of Wen Jiabao’s family members in The New
York Times’s report” did not exist.

After criticizing several points in the article, the statement hinted at
the possibility of future legal action. “We will continue to make
clarifications regarding untrue reports by The New York Times, and reserve
the right to hold it legally responsible,” the statement said.

The statement reported in The Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, has not been
obtained directly by The Times.
The statement was not a sweeping denial of the article. The statement
acknowledged that some family members were active in business and that
they “are responsible for all their own business activities.”

While the statement disputed that Mr. Wen’s mother had held assets, it did
not address the calculation in the article that the family had controlled
assets worth at least $2.7 billion.

Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Times, expressed confidence in the
article. “We are standing by our story, which we are incredibly proud of
and which is an example of the quality investigative journalism The Times
is known for,” she wrote in an e-mail.

The lawyers’ statement represents an unusual move for the family of a
senior Chinese leader. When Bloomberg News published an article in late
June describing real estate and other assets held by the family of Vice
President Xi Jinping, his family did not respond publicly.

The statement published in The Post was attributed to Bai Tao, a partner
in the Beijing office of the Jun He Law Firm, and Wang Weidong, the
managing partner of the Beijing office of the Grandall Law Firm.
No one answered phone calls to both lawyers’ offices on Sunday, nor did
Mr. Wang respond immediately to an e-mail.

The statement denied an anecdote in The Times article that described how
one investment in the name of Mr. Wen’s mother, Yang Zhiyun, was worth
$120 million five years ago. “The mother of Wen Jiabao, except receiving
salary/pension according to the regulation, has never had any income or
property,” the statement said.

Corporate registration records reviewed by The Times showed that in 2007
the prime minister’s 90-year-old mother held about $120 million worth of
shares in Ping An, an insurance company, through investment vehicles. A
signature bearing her name and her government-issued identity card were
included in the registration record, which was obtained from government
regulatory filings.

The family’s statement also said that some members had not engaged in
business while others “were engaged in business activities, but they did
not carry out any illegal business activity. They do not hold shares of
any companies.”

The statement also said that Mr. Wen had not been involved in those
activities. “Wen Jiabao has never played any role in the business
activities of his family members, still less has he allowed his family
members’ business activities to have any influence on his formulation and
execution of policies.”

The Times article did not allege any illegal business activity, and it
said that Mr. Wen did not appear to have accumulated assets. The article
also said that there was no evidence that Mr. Wen personally intervened to
help family members’ investments. The article pointed out that as prime
minister in a country where the state plays a large role in the economy,
Mr. Wen oversaw many government officials whose decisions could play a
large role in the fortunes of businesses and investors.

Hong Lei, the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, criticized the
article on Friday during a briefing, saying that it “smears China and has
ulterior motives.”

The Times posted the article in English on Friday, and in Chinese three
hours later, after final edits in English were translated. The Chinese
government quickly blocked access from mainland Chinese computers to the
Chinese-language and English-language Web sites of The Times before the
article was posted in Chinese. But many people in China appear to have
used virtual private networks to view the article anyway.

The report on the finances of Mr. Wen’s family has also received heavy
coverage in the Hong Kong news media, which has extensive reach inside
mainland China.