China’s Internet censors blocked news yesterday about a graft probe in Namibia involving a firm linked to the son of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as the state-run media ignored the sensitive issue.
Two Namibians and a Chinese national were arrested last week in Namibia as part of a probe into bribery allegations involving Nuctech, a company headed until last year by Hu’s 38-year-old son, Hu Haifeng (胡海峰).
Searches for information on the case and Hu Haifeng’s connection to it on Chinese Web portals turned up error messages such as: “The search results may contain content not in line with relevant laws, regulations and policies.”
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Such results on China’s heavily censored Internet are typically returned when a Web user seeks banned information.
China has a history of blocking access to sensitive data on the Internet, especially concerning politics and the lives of top leaders.
Popular sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been blocked for weeks as censors sought to limit the information flow over the deadly unrest in Xinjiang and the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The US-based China Digital Times, which monitors Web developments in China, said propaganda officials had issued an order banning various Internet searches related to the Nuctech case.
China Digital Times and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it appeared the Nuctech Internet censorship had been in place for a few days.
China’s mainstream media is tightly controlled by the government, and newspapers as well as TV news have also made no mention of the Nuctech case in recent days.
Hu Haifeng was president of Nuctech, which provides scanning technology, until last year, when he was promoted to Chinese Communist Party secretary of Tsinghua Holdings, which controls Nuctech and more than 20 other companies.
Nuctech provides security scanning equipment.
Nuctech representative Yang Fan (楊帆) and two Namibians, Teckla Lameck and Jerobeam Mokaxwa, were arrested after Namibia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) discovered that a US$12.8 million down payment on 13 scanners had been diverted to a firm called Teko Trading owned by the two Namibians.
Nuctech has a Namibian government contract to supply security scanning equipment in a US$55.3 million deal, paid for with a Chinese loan granted when the Chinese president visited the country in 2007.
Investigators say the down payment was diverted to Teko Trading between March and April.
All three of the accused later drew large sums from the Teko account, with Yang taking 16.8 million Namibian dollars (US$2.1 million), most of which he is said to have paid into an investment fund, investigators said.
China’s foreign ministry declined comment when contacted by reporters about the case on Wednesday, referring queries to Nuctech.
Staff at Nuctech’s Beijing-based headquarters, however, also declined comment.
“We never speak to the media,” a woman who answered the phone said.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS