Li Xiaolin (李小琳), daughter of a former Chinese premier known for his support of the bloody military crackdown on the 1989 democracy movement, held as much as US$2.48 million in a secret HSBC account in Switzerland, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has found.
The revelation, gleaned from a cache of leaked files that have been dubbed “Swiss Leaks,” adds to the list of families of Chinese senior politicians who amassed huge wealth in the past couple of decades and stashed some of it in overseas accounts that can help them avoid detection by authorities back home.
Li, daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng (李鵬), did not respond to requests by the ICIJ for comments.
Photo: Reuters
People who answered telephones yesterday at a state-owned utility where she is chairman declined to forward calls to her or give information about how to reach her.
Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s roots in socialism, party officials have leveraged their power to place family and friends in key positions of major industries such as energy, communications and banking, providing tremendous payoffs in what critics say comes at the expense of improving lives of the working masses.
In 2012, Bloomberg reported that the relatives of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) held investments in companies with total assets of US$376 million, an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare-earths company with US$1.73 billion in assets and a US$20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company, although no assets were traced to Xi himself, his wife or their daughter.
Also in 2012, the New York Times reported that relatives of former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) had controlled assets worth at least US$2.7 billion.
Last year, the ICIJ found through leaked documents that children of Chinese senior officials, known as princelings, had stashed away wealth in offshore companies and accounts. Among them, Li Xiaolin was the director of two British Virgin Islands companies registered in 2005, according to the consortium.
The party’s own anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi after he took control of the party in late 2012 has uncovered numerous cases involving millions of dollars by party officials, their family members and associates. Allegedly corrupt cadres have been charged with taking bribes as well as using their positions to seek huge benefits for others.
Li Xiaolin, the only daughter of Li Peng, premier between 1987 and 1998, is the chairwoman of the state-owned electricity giant China Power International Development. She is widely known among the Chinese public by the nickname “Power Queen.”
She has asserted that her family background has had no bearing on her success.
Li Xiaolin had a reputation for expensive tastes in luxury clothes, though she has switched to more modest attire and has even been seen using a reusable shopping bag since Xi took office.
In 2013, the Telegraph reported that Li Xiaolin brokered secret deals to help Zurich Insurance gain a major stake in the private insurer New China Life, before foreign investment in the insurance sector was allowed in China.
Li Xiaolin denied the allegation, saying she had had no personal relationship with any insurance company.
On Monday, the ICIJ said Li Xiaolin and her husband were beneficial owners of a client account linked to five bank accounts that held as much as US$2.48 million in 2006 and 2007.
The accounts were held under the name of Metralco Overseas SA, a Panama-registered company that was dissolved in 2012, the consortium said.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS