Chinese Premier’s
Family Disputes Article on Riches
Published: October 27, 2012
HONG
KONG — Two lawyers who said they represented the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
of China
have issued a statement disputing aspects of a New York Times article
about the family’s wealth, a rare instance of a powerful Chinese
political family responding directly to a foreign media report.
Alexander F. Yuan/Associated Press
Prime
Minister Wen Jiabao
Related
·
Billions in
Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader(October 26, 2012)
·
China Blocks and
Criticizes Investigation Into Premier(October 27, 2012)
The statement, published in The South China Morning Post
on Sunday, said, “The so-called ‘hidden riches’ of Wen Jiabao’s family members
in The New York Times’s report” did not exist.
After criticizing several points in the article, the
statement hinted at the possibility of future legal action. “We will continue
to make clarifications regarding untrue reports by The New York Times, and
reserve the right to hold it legally responsible,” the statement said.
The statement reported in The Post, a Hong Kong
newspaper, has not been obtained directly by The Times.
The statement was not a sweeping denial of the article.
The statement acknowledged that some family members were active in business and
that they “are responsible for all their own business activities.”
While the statement disputed that Mr. Wen’s mother had
held assets, it did not address the calculation in the article that the family
had controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion.
Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Times, expressed
confidence in the article. “We are standing by our story, which we are
incredibly proud of and which is an example of the quality investigative journalism
The Times is known for,” she wrote in an e-mail.
The lawyers’ statement represents an unusual move for the
family of a senior Chinese leader. When Bloomberg News published an article in
late June describing real estate and other assets held by the family of Vice
President Xi Jinping, his family did not respond publicly.
The statement published in The Post was attributed to Bai
Tao, a partner in the Beijing office of the Jun He Law Firm, and Wang Weidong,
the managing partner of the Beijing office of the Grandall Law Firm.
No one answered phone calls to both lawyers’ offices on
Sunday, nor did Mr. Wang respond immediately to an e-mail.
The statement denied an anecdote in The Times article
that described how one investment in the name of Mr. Wen’s mother, Yang Zhiyun,
was worth $120 million five years ago. “The mother of Wen Jiabao, except
receiving salary/pension according to the regulation, has never had any income
or property,” the statement said.
Corporate registration records reviewed by The Times
showed that in 2007 the prime minister’s 90-year-old mother held about $120
million worth of shares in Ping An, an insurance company, through investment
vehicles. A signature bearing her name and her government-issued identity card
were included in the registration record, which was obtained from government
regulatory filings.
The family’s statement also said that some members had
not engaged in business while others “were engaged in business activities, but
they did not carry out any illegal business activity. They do not hold shares
of any companies.”
The statement also said that Mr. Wen had not been
involved in those activities. “Wen Jiabao has never played any role in the
business activities of his family members, still less has he allowed his family
members’ business activities to have any influence on his formulation and
execution of policies.”
The Times article did not allege any illegal business
activity, and it said that Mr. Wen did not appear to have accumulated assets.
The article also said that there was no evidence that Mr. Wen personally
intervened to help family members’ investments. The article pointed out that as
prime minister in a country where the state plays a large role in the economy,
Mr. Wen oversaw many government officials whose decisions could play a large
role in the fortunes of businesses and investors.
Hong Lei, the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry,
criticized the article on Friday during a briefing, saying that it “smears
China and has ulterior motives.”
The Times posted the article in English on Friday, and in
Chinese three hours later, after final edits in English were translated. The
Chinese government quickly blocked access from mainland Chinese computers to
the Chinese-language and English-language Web sites of The Times before the
article was posted in Chinese. But many people in China appear to have used
virtual private networks to view the article anyway.
The
report on the finances of Mr. Wen’s family has also received heavy coverage in
the Hong Kong news media, which has extensive reach inside mainland China. .
巨富791億報導 律師代溫家寶家人聲明駁紐時
外媒︰罕見且不尋常
〔編譯陳成良／綜合報導〕兩名中國律師二十七日晚間代表「溫家寶家人」發表聲明，反駁紐約時報針對溫家寶家族有隱秘財產的指控，並且否認溫家寶執行及制定政策受家人的經營行為影響，強調將保留法律追訴權。英國廣播公司（ＢＢＣ）、紐約時報和香港南華早報等外國媒體皆指出，溫家寶此舉罕見且不尋常。
紐時二十六日頭版驚爆，溫家寶一九九八年擔任國務院總理以來，他的母親、手足和子女聚積大筆財富，名下資產至少二十七億美元（約七百九十一億台幣）。報導更暗示家族的資產累積太快，可能與溫家寶的職務有關。中國隨即封鎖紐時網站與關鍵字，中國外交部發言人則批紐時抹黑中國，別有用心。
代表「溫家寶家人」
由北京君合律師事務所律師白濤及國浩律師事務所律師王衛東署名的聲明中，並未說明「溫家寶家人」是何人。聲明說，紐時所指的溫家寶家人「隱秘財產」並不存在，溫家寶家人並未從事任何非法經營活動，未持有任何公司股份。聲明也否認溫家寶有不當行為或從事商業活動，自他擔任總理以來，親戚從未以任何方式獲利，對溫家寶「制定及執行政策」也沒有任何影響力。被指坐擁巨富的溫家寶九十歲老母楊志雲，除依法領取的工資和退休金外，別無其他收入，亦無其他財產。
分析指出，溫家寶透過律師發佈聲明澄清海外媒體報導的作法，在中國領導層極為罕見，顯示在中共十八大召開前夕當局處於高度敏感狀態。南華早報指出，這是第一次有中國高層領導人出面反駁外國媒體的報導。
紐時︰溫未全盤否認報導
紐約時報則解讀，溫家寶家人請律師發表聲明，但並未全盤否認報導，其中第二點甚至承認部分家族成員曾經商，必須對自己的商業行為負責。
有北京外國媒體私下認為，溫家寶家人坐擁龐大資產的消息，早已哄傳海外，並非新聞，紐時這篇報導只是調查得比較深入，並估算出比較令人咋舌的具體金額而已。
據公開資訊揭溫家財富
紐時撰稿記者巴博薩（David
Barboza）在另一篇文章中說，這些資料其實是從已經公布，或可付費取得的財報資料彙整分析而來，因為中國改革開放三十多年來，為吸引海外投資，許多政府部門保存私人企業和主要股東的文件，包括簡歷和身分證副本在內，讓紐時得以檢視相關紀錄
沒有留言:
張貼留言