China limits ‘Panama Papers’ coverage and denounces tax haven revelations
Files in leaked documents reportedly reveal offshore firms linked to the families of China’s President Xi Jinping and other powerful current and former mainland leaders
China has moved to limit coverage of the massive leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm that may have exposed financial wrongdoing by some of the world’s rich and powerful, by blocking some search terms and removing certain stories online.
The “Panama Papers” revealed financial arrangements of politicians and public figures, including friends of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, relatives of the prime ministers of Britain, Iceland and Pakistan, and the President of the Ukraine.
The law firm, Mossack Fonseca, which says it has set up more than 240,000 offshore companies for clients around the globe, has denied any wrongdoing and called itself the victim of a campaign against privacy.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which has published some of the information from the documents said the files also revealed offshore companies linked to the families of China’s President Xi Jinping and other powerful current and former Chinese leaders.
Information that is negative to the US can always be minimised, while exposure of non-Western leaders, such as [Vladimir] Putin, can get extra spin
While holding money in offshore companies is not illegal, journalists who received the leaked documents said they could provide evidence of wealth hidden for tax evasion, money laundering, sanctions busting, drug deals or other crimes.
While the Chinese government has yet to respond publicly to the allegations – the Cabinet’s news office did not immediately answer a request for comment – state media have largely avoided any reporting of the “Panama Papers”.
Searches for the word “Panama” on Chinese search engines bring up stories in Chinese media on the topic, but many of the links have been disabled, or open only onto stories about allegations directed at sports stars.
China’s internet regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, the Global Times, an influential tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, suggested in an editorial on Tuesday that Western media backed by Washington had used such leaks to attack political targets in non-Western countries.
“The Western media has taken control of the interpretation each time there has been such a document dump, and Washington has demonstrated particular influence in it,” the paper said.
“Information that is negative to the US can always be minimised, while exposure of non-Western leaders, such as Putin, can get extra spin,” it added.
The editorial, in both its English and Chinese editions, made no mention of the China connections in the Panama Papers.
China is in the midst of a massive crackdown on corruption overseen by Xi, but the government has repeatedly had to swat away criticism that the move is more about an internal power play than actually tackling graft.
Calls to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party’s graft watchdog that is leading the crackdown, went unanswered.
Last week, a top party magazine lashed out at critics of the anti-corruption campaign, saying that foreign media and individuals from home and abroad were intentionally trying to discredit the effort as a political “power struggle”.
