Leaked documents reveal Chinese elite use offshore companies to conceal billions of dollars abroad

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/world/asia/report-finds-elite-chinese-using-offshore-companies.html

Report Finds Elite Chinese Using Offshore Companies
By ANDREW JACOBS and DAVID BARBOZA | JAN. 22, 2014

BEIJING — Members of the Chinese elite, including some of the country’s most politically connected figures, have set up a large number of offshore companies that allow them to conceal billions of dollars abroad, according to a new report released Wednesday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Washington-based group that works with a number of news organizations around the world.

The report’s authors say it is based on leaked documents concerning tens of thousands of tax-haven clients. The report names more than a dozen of China’s wealthiest people, as well as relatives of top officials, including those of the country’s leader, Xi Jinping; the former premier, Wen Jiabao; and the descendants of the ruling Communist Party’s revolutionary founders.

The report was released at an awkward time for Mr. Xi, who has made cracking down on corruption and reining in officials’ displays of wealth among his top priorities since taking charge of the Communist Party in 2012. The combination of wealth and power illustrated in the report could become a political liability for the government at a time when the Chinese public is increasingly concerned about official privilege.

During a regular news briefing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman who was asked about the report dismissed it as “hardly convincing,” and suggested that those who leaked the documents had ulterior motives. Censors blocked access to the consortium’s online report in much of China on Wednesday, and Chinese media made no mention of it.

[Trillo]

1. interesting

all the similar strategies, here, there, everywhere....