SUN
WUKONG Wen
'wealth' probe can boost Xi By
Wu Zhong, China Editor
HONG KONG - Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao appears to be a person who
cares very much about his public image and
reputation. Now, he seems to be concerned how he
will be remembered after his full retirement.
"I hope people will forget me, though I'll
never forget our Motherland and people," an
emotional Wen said, tears in his eyes, last week
in Bangkok when meeting representatives of
overseas Chinese in the Thai capital. Quoting an
ancient Chinese poem, Wen said he had no regrets
about "dying nine times" to prove his "honesty and
integrity".
Apparently, Wen is quite
obsessed with rumors about his family's alleged
hidden wealth, renewed lately by a New York Times
report on October 25 - ahead of the 18th National
Congress of the
Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) - which put the amount at US$2.7 billion. In
a move rarely seen in China, Wen's family fought
back, hiring lawyers to reject the NYT report and
threatening to take legal action against the
American newspaper. [1]
In China, many
netizens have regarded the rumors as fabricated by
anti-reform elements in the party to smear the
reform-minded leader. Now they read Wen's words as
his farewell speech, feeling regret that this
"People's Premier" could not materialize his
ideals of deepening reforms during his 10-year
tenure due to resistance and obstruction by
anti-reform elements and vested interest groups.
Wen's critics say he is just trying to
portray himself as a tragic hero to divert public
attention from long-time speculation about his
family's huge wealth,
After Wen's remarks,
the NYT published a follow-up report on November
24 about the origin of the wealth of Wen's family
- largely through holdings in Ping An Insurance.
This time, China's second-largest insurer, listed
in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges, issued
a statement to deny the story and threaten to take
legal action. [2]
Wen himself has kept a
close eye on the development of the rumors from
the very beginning, when Guangzhou-based 21st
Century Business Herald carried a report in July
2004 which hinted, without naming, that Wen's son
might have made a fortune by obtaining Ping An
shares at unusually low prices before the insurer
went public. Wen has since prepared for his
counter attack.
In April last year, Wen
invited Ng Hong Mun, a retired principal of a
pro-Beijing secondary school in Hong Kong and a
former Hong Kong deputy to the National People's
Congress (NPC), to his home inside the Zhongnanhai
compound - headquarters of China's power center in
Beijing - for a private meeting.
The two
talked for one-and-a-half hours. At the time, Ng
said only that Wen mainly talked about the
difficulties of pushing forward reforms.
But on November 10 of this year, in the
midst of the CCP's National Congress, Ng wrote on
Ming Pao, a Chinese-language daily in Hong Kong,
accusing the NYT of refreshing old rumors trying
to smear Wen.
Ng wrote:
At the end of the meeting the
premier gave me a big manila envelope supposedly
containing some documents. He said nothing and I
did not open it on spot. I opened it when I got
back to my hotel room. Inside were a pile of
photocopies of media reports, which were
arranged into sorts with subtitles: 1. The
origin of the rumors - 21st Century Business
Herald on July 1, 2004; 2. Ping An Insurance
- related rumors and articles on Internet
refuting the rumors; 3. Clarification of the
Taiwan delegation participating [in] the jewelry
exhibition [at which Wen's wife allegedly bought
jewelry worth millions of yuan]; 4. Xu Ming
passed himself off as (Wen's) son-in-law; 5.
Recent ungrounded reports about Wen Yunsong (son
of the premier).
All stuff was to smear
him [Wen] and his family members. They came out
long before the NYT article ... When Premier Wen
passed the stuff to me, he did not ask me to do
anything for him. But I knew, these overseas
media reports were aimed at infiltrating into
the mainland to deal a blow to the authority of
Premier Wen as the banner holder of the
reformists.
Much of the NYT's lengthy
report to expose the so-called hidden wealth of
the Wen family was just "leftover rice"
recooked. They couldn't even find a picture of
Premier Wen and his wife and had to... ask me
whether they could use the exclusive picture of
the Wen couple meeting with me last year.
The controversy over Wen's family
wealth aside, Ng's article shows Wen is a savvy
and sophisticated politician. Wen knew the rumors
were a time-bomb that would explode one day, and
he trusted that Ng would come forward to speak out
for him, though at that time the premier did not
ask Ng"to do anything for him".
Now Ng
proves his trustworthiness. The timing for Ng in
publishing this article is also very intriguing -
he had not disclosed anything since his meeting
with Wen last year, holding back until after the
NYT published its first story.
Later on,
interviewed by Hong Kong media, Ng explained why
he had kept silent for so long: "I don't think it
is too late. I'm not obliged to defend Premier
Wen... In any case, an innocent person will be
proven innocent."
But he thought he needed
to react now because some people wanted to make an
issue of the rumors.
"Premier Wen has a
son and a daughter. I don't see they have
especially high political or economic positions,"
Ng said. He added that former premier Li Peng's
son is vice governor of Shanxi province and that
Li his daughter a board chairman of a state-owned
enterprise, so by comparison, Wen's children
remain relatively low profile.
Eager as Ng
is to defend Wen, he failed to mention that Wen's
son, Wen Yunsong, now is board chairman of China
Satellite Communications Co Ltd, a large
state-owned enterprise. Nor did he offer an
explanation of how junior Wen managed to get this
not-so-low-profile post.
More pertinently,
Ng has provided no hard evidence to convincingly
refute the NYT reports and other rumors.
The nearly 100 pages of newspaper clips
and copies of articles on the Internet that Wen
passed to Ng indeed include those that defended
Wen and his family members against the rumors. But
they are media reports, just like the NYT stories,
which can hardly be independently verified or
refuted or used as evidence to make a judgment.
Taking legal action against the NYT, as
threatened by Wen's family and Ping An, may help
clarify the issue. However, few believe they will
really take such an action, for, since the premier
is involved, the CCP won't allow the case to be
brought to a court either in the United States or
in China.
Since Wen cares very much about
his reputation and reportedly has asked the CCP to
conduct an investigation into the alleged
wrongdoings of his family, it is now up to the CCP
whether and how to satisfy the out-going premier's
aspiration.
For this, the CCP's top
anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for
Disciplinary Inspection (CCDI) headed by its new
chief, the no-nonsense Wang Qishan, should start
an investigation as urged by Wen. If Wen or any of
his family members is found guilty, they should be
given due punishment in accordance with the law or
party discipline. On the other hand, if they are
proved innocent, they deserve a public clearance
so that the premier can enjoy his retirement life
with his mind at ease.
The 18th party
congress has pledged to step up its crackdown on
corruption: the party "will staunchly fight
against corruption. Anyone, no matter who he is,
how powerful he is or how high ranking he is, must
be punished severely if he violates party
discipline and law."
To conduct an
investigation into the alleged wealth of Wen's
family would convince the public that the party
really honors its commitment, which would boost
the authority and popularity of the new leadership
headed by Xi Jinping.
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