China’s incoming president Xi Jinping’s family ‘has wealth of hundreds of millions’

The investments are hidden from public view in multiple holding companies, but
were identified among thousands of pages of regulatory findings, Bloomberg
said.

The family’s interests include a 1.83 billion yuan (£188 million) share of the
assets of Shenzhen Yuanwei, a property investment company, according to a
filing from December 2011.

Other companies in the same group, wholly owned by the family, have assets of
at least 539.3 million yuan. They also have an indirect 18 per cent stake in
Jiangxi Rare Earth Rare Metals Tungsten Group, whose assets are worth
some £1.1 billion.

Another 3.17 million yuan investment in Beijing’s Hiconics Drive Technology
company, made in 2009, is now worth 128.4 million yuan. The sums do not
account for liabilities and consequently do not reflect the net worth of the
family.

The family also owns a villa in Hong Kong worth £20 million and another six
properties in the former British colony with an estimated value of £15.4
million. The Chinese Foreign ministry declined to comment on the revelations.

Most of the traceable fortune is held by Mr Xi’s older sister, Qi Qiaoqiao,
63, her husband Deng Jiagui, 61, and her daughter Zhang Yannan, 33. However,
a brother-in-law, Wu Long, ran New Postcom Equipment Co, which has won
hundreds of millions of yuan in contracts from state-owned China Mobile.

No assets were traced to Mr Xi himself, his wife Peng Liyuan, or their
daughter. There is also no indication that Mr Xi helped to advance his
relatives’ business, or of any wrongdoing by Mr Xi or his family, Bloomberg
said.

However, the Chinese authorities were quick to censor the report, blocking
Bloomberg’s website from view on the mainland.

As China prepares for its once-in-a-decade transition of power, there is
growing outrage over the wealth of its “princelings”, the
relatives of Communist party leaders.

While many princelings engage in legitimate business, there is a widespread
perception that they trade on their connections to make money.

Bo Xilai, a member of the Communist party’s politburo and the former chief of
Chongqing, is now under investigation amid suspicions that his wife
funnelled billions of dollars out of China.

On April 11, just hours after announcing Mr Bo’s purge, the People’s Daily,
the official party mouthpiece, attacked Communist leaders for parlaying
their power into wealth.

“Many use designated third parties – spouses, sons and daughters, lovers
or friends” to generate and conceal wealth,” it said.

Mr Bo’s son, Guagua, has recently graduated from Harvard after studying at
Papplewick, Harrow and Oxford University. His elder brother used a second
name to control millions of pounds of shares at the Hong Kong subsidiary of
a Chinese state bank. Two of his sisters are worth at least £80 million,
according to a separate Bloomberg investigation.

There is a danger now, however, that the exposure of Mr Bo’s wrongdoings will
serve to illuminate the behaviour of other Communist party leaders. “Even
Bo’s opponents want everything to return to normal as soon as possible. His
case is not unique and in some way illustrates the breakdown of the entire
system,” said one university professor, who asked not to be named.

Bo Zhiyue, a professor of Chinese politics at Singapore’s National University
said no systemic change is likely: “It is not possible for them to go
after the princeling families. It would be like committing suicide. In the
end, they will make Bo a single case and claim there is no wider implication.”
The revelations about Mr Xi’s family’s wealth will now challenge that.

Meanwhile, a poll in the People’s Daily showed 91 per cent of respondents
believed that all rich families in China had political backgrounds.

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