{"id":62833,"date":"2016-04-05T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=62833 "},"modified":"2016-04-05T18:15:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:15:00","slug":"62833-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=62833","title":{"rendered":"Panama papers: China censors online discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">4 April 2016<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2016\/13\/201644_89070774_89eedf30-fd77-439c-bce7-a2531585b1eb.jpg\" alt=\"201644_89070774_89eedf30-fd77-439c-bce7-a2531585b1eb.jpg (660&#215;426)\" \/><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The topic page for the Panama Papers hashtag on Sina Weibo appeared to have been censored by Monday afternoon with at least 481 discussions blocked<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Panama<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> Papers<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> appears to be censoring social media posts on the Panama Papers document leak which has named several members of China&#8217;s elite, including President Xi Jinping&#8217;s brother-in-law.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hundreds of posts on networks such as Sina Weibo and Wechat on the topic have been deleted since Monday morning.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The leaked papers, from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, reveal how the rich have used tax havens.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">They mention Deng Jiagui, who is married to Mr Xi&#8217;s older sister.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">An investigative report by Bloomberg News in 2012 suggested that Deng and his wife had hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate, share holdings and other assets.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">There are legitimate ways of using tax havens and offshore companies, although these entities are often used to hide the true owners of assets or avoid paying tax on the money.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Panama Papers reaction &#8211; latest<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Censored terms<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Panama Papers show that Mr Deng acquired two offshore companies in 2009, at a time when Mr Xi was rising in politics.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It is unclear what the companies were used for.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The two companies were dormant by 2012, when Mr Xi was named general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Mr Deng did not respond to requests for comment from the ICIJ.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">State media appeared to black out the news. But many on microblogging network Sina Weibo and mobile chat network Wechat were discussing the topic on Monday morning, sharing Chinese translations of details of the story, including information on Mr Deng.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">A hashtag created on the topic quickly trended.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Checks by the BBC found that by the end of the day many of those posts had disappeared, with at least 481 discussions deleted from the hashtag&#8217;s Weibo topic page, and other posts shared on Wechat also deleted.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The website Freeweibo.com, which actively tracks censorship on Weibo, listed &#8220;Panama&#8221; as the second-most censored term on the network. The top censored term was controversial Hong Kong movie &#8220;Ten Years&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Screenshot of Freeweibo.com on 4 April 2016Image copyrightFreeweibo.com<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Image caption<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The website Freeweibo which tracks deleted content said the second most censored topic was &#8220;Panama&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Besides Mr Deng, several other individuals among China&#8217;s elite were also named in the papers.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">They include Li Xiaolin, the daughter of former premier Li Peng, and Jasmine Li, the granddaughter of former high-ranking official Jia Qinglin.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Li Xiaolin owned an offshore company, Cofic Investments Ltd, incorporated in the British Virgin  Islands, while Jasmine Li received an offshore company as a teenager, ICIJ said.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The two women did not respond to requests from the ICIJ for comment. Charles-Andre Junod, a lawyer who was a director for Cofic Investments, declined to comment but said he had always respected relevant laws.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8216;s Communist officials are discouraged from profiting from their ruling positions, and their family members are not supposed to profit from their ties, according to the Party&#8217;s constitution.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Mr Xi has been conducting a sweeping crackdown on corruption since he took power as president in 2012, arresting hundreds of thousands of officials.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Panama<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> Papers &#8211; tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have been passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper the Guardian are among 107 media organisations in 78 countries which have been analysing the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">They show how the company has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Mossack Fonseca says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and never been accused or charged with criminal wrong-doing<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Tricks of the trade: How assets are hidden and taxes evaded<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Panama<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> Papers: Full coverage; follow reaction on Twitter using #PanamaPapers; in the BBC News app, follow the tag &#8220;Panama Papers&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Watch Panorama at 19:30 on BBC One on Monday, 4 April, or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only)<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-35957235\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Hundreds of posts on networks such as Sina Weibo and Wechat on the topic have been deleted since Monday morning.The leaked papers, from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, reveal how the rich have used tax havens.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}