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Files shed light on more than 20,000 tax haven clients, including relatives of president
Close relatives of China's top leaders have used secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist elite's wealth, according to a massive cache of leaked financial records, posing a formidable challenge for President Xi Jinping, the country's avowed anti-corruption leader.
The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by Xi's brother-in-law, as well as British Virgin Islands corporations set up by former premier Wen Jiabao's son and son-in-law, plus dozens of more cases of people tied to high-level officials.
Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng, is known as China's 'power queen.' She is tied to two companies in the BVI. (Bobby Yip/Reuters )
The discovery could incense ordinary citizens in China, where senior Communist officials used to enjoy a modestly better living but nothing close to the extravagant wealth required to stash money offshore, said Fred Bild, Canada's ambassador in Beijing from 1990 to 1994. "Now, the income gap between the elite and the masses is huge.... You have hundreds of millions of people that are still living on very low income and they will be outraged."
The revelations are the latest from the huge trove of documents leaked to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalistsand first reported on last April in partnership with media outlets worldwide.
CBC News has exclusive access in Canada to the files, which show that nearly 22,000 people with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong are involved in offshore dealings in locales such as the British Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands, places usually associated with hidden wealth. Among them are some of China's most powerful men and women — including at least 15 of China's richest, members of the National People's Congress and executives from state-owned companies entangled in corruption scandals.
"The political families and the elites never assumed that you could have such a public list of names coming out," said Yves Tiberghien, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia and director of its Institute of Asian Research.
Tiberghien compared this latest leak to the classified U.S. intelligence files disclosed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. "There was no assumption that this could come out. So that's the big shock."
Mysteries
The leaked records disclose a wide array of Chinese nationals using offshore havens, often for business purposes tied to the state entities they run, such as for direct foreign investments in Latin America, where Chinese companies have been expanding operations for years. But in many cases, the offshore shell corporations set up by Chinese nationals are shrouded in questions that they refused to answer.
Among China's Politburo Standing Committee, the all-powerful group of seven (formerly nine) men who run the Communist Party and the country, relatives of at least five current or former members have incorporated companies in the Cook Islands or British Virgin Islands, the leaked records show.
More here - Offshore assets of China's elite revealed in leaked records - World - CBC News
Close relatives of China's top leaders have used secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist elite's wealth, according to a massive cache of leaked financial records, posing a formidable challenge for President Xi Jinping, the country's avowed anti-corruption leader.
The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by Xi's brother-in-law, as well as British Virgin Islands corporations set up by former premier Wen Jiabao's son and son-in-law, plus dozens of more cases of people tied to high-level officials.
Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Chinese premier Li Peng, is known as China's 'power queen.' She is tied to two companies in the BVI. (Bobby Yip/Reuters )
The discovery could incense ordinary citizens in China, where senior Communist officials used to enjoy a modestly better living but nothing close to the extravagant wealth required to stash money offshore, said Fred Bild, Canada's ambassador in Beijing from 1990 to 1994. "Now, the income gap between the elite and the masses is huge.... You have hundreds of millions of people that are still living on very low income and they will be outraged."
The revelations are the latest from the huge trove of documents leaked to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalistsand first reported on last April in partnership with media outlets worldwide.
CBC News has exclusive access in Canada to the files, which show that nearly 22,000 people with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong are involved in offshore dealings in locales such as the British Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands, places usually associated with hidden wealth. Among them are some of China's most powerful men and women — including at least 15 of China's richest, members of the National People's Congress and executives from state-owned companies entangled in corruption scandals.
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"The political families and the elites never assumed that you could have such a public list of names coming out," said Yves Tiberghien, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia and director of its Institute of Asian Research.
Tiberghien compared this latest leak to the classified U.S. intelligence files disclosed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. "There was no assumption that this could come out. So that's the big shock."
Mysteries
The leaked records disclose a wide array of Chinese nationals using offshore havens, often for business purposes tied to the state entities they run, such as for direct foreign investments in Latin America, where Chinese companies have been expanding operations for years. But in many cases, the offshore shell corporations set up by Chinese nationals are shrouded in questions that they refused to answer.
Among China's Politburo Standing Committee, the all-powerful group of seven (formerly nine) men who run the Communist Party and the country, relatives of at least five current or former members have incorporated companies in the Cook Islands or British Virgin Islands, the leaked records show.
More here - Offshore assets of China's elite revealed in leaked records - World - CBC News
