Websites censored over revelations regarding Wen Jiabao's daughter
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - As of this morning, the Chinese language websites of Reuters and The Wall Street Journal appear to be blocked in the mainland after media reports indicated that JPMorgan paid Wen Jiabao's daughter for an "introduction" to a Chinese business.
According to The New York Times' report, the US financial giant paid $ 1.8 million to Fullmark Consulting, a small firm headed by one Lily Chang, who is in fact Wen Ruchun, Wen Jiabao's only daughter. The report also noted that Fullmark claimed in a confidential letter to the bank that it "introduced and secured" business for JPMorgan from the state-run China Railway Group.
The Times' English and Chinese websites have been blocked in China for over a year, since the newspaper published a series of articles on the wealth held by Wen Jiabao's family. Since Wednesday, the paper's recently-launched Chinese-language site for T Magazine has also been inaccessible in mainland China.
Following the story broke, a flood of comments has hit various social networks, which in China are a privileged venue for complaints against the wealth and corruption of Party leaders and their families. And almost as quickly as they appeared, many comments were deleted or blocked.
When he was in power, former President Hu Jintao (under whom Wen served as prime minister) called several times on Party members to release to the public information about their wealth and assets, along with that of members of their family, but to little success.
Over a year ago, Bloomberg made public the results of an investigation into the wealth held by Xi Jinping, the Communist Party's current secretary general as well as China's president, who has made fighting corruption one of his top priorities.
However, several activists who called for the release of information about the wealth held by the party's ruling families have been arrested in recent months.
One of the most combative groups is the New Citizen civil rights movement which has had at least 18 of its members detained or arrested.
One of the group's supporters is dissident Guo Feixiong, 47, who has been held in isolation for the past three months until yesterday, when he was able to see his lawyer.
Guo, who was arrested before and sometimes subjected to torture, told him that during this time he protested his detention by refusing to eat for 25 days.
Besides the charges for his call to have China's leaders reveal their wealth, Guo has also been accused of organising a campaign to press the government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in 1998 but has never implemented.
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