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(USGovernment-News.Com, November 10, 2012 ) Frankston, Australia- In a highly unusual step, lawyers from two top law firms in China have hinted at legal action against the New York Times. Saying they represent members of the family of Chinese prime minister Wen Jinbao, they are challenging a recent Times story claiming Wen’s relatives have amassed a $2.7 billion fortune over the past two decades. As China’s second-ranking official, behind only President Hu Jintao, Wen Jinbao has a great deal of authority over the nation’s economic and regulatory policies.
On October 25, a lengthy Times article reported Wen's relatives had held shares in banks, jewelers, telecommunications companies and infrastructure projects, sometimes through offshore entities. Citing regulatory and corporate records, the Times said the prime minister’s 90-year-old mother held a $120 million stake in a financial services group five years ago. It also claimed Wen’s wife had accumulated a fortune trading in diamonds, while his son had grown rich in private-equity deals.
A few days after the story appeared, the lawyers jointly filed a page-long statement in two Hong Kong newspapers, charging the story about the “hidden riches “of the 70-year-old prime ministers’ family was “untrue”.
The lawyers’ six-point statement stated Wen’s mother “except receiving salary/pension according to the regulation, has never had any income or property.” It also generally denied Wen’s relatives held positions in any companies. While some family members had engaged in business activities, the statement added, they had never acted illegally.
The lawyers’ statement concluded by saying they would press the Times to retract the untrue statements and “reserve the right to hold it legally responsible.” It did not specify the type of legal action they might bring, or where it could be filed.
Both lawyers who published the statement are leading corporate lawyers with numerous international clients. One is the managing partner of a prominent Beijing law firm. The other is a U.S.-trained intellectual property law expert for another Beijing law firm.
In an entry on the New York Times website, a spokeswoman for the paper said, “we are standing by our story,” adding the paper was “incredibly proud” of it, as an “example of the quality investigative journalism the Times is known for.”
After the article appeared, China blocked access to the paper’s Chinese and English-language websites; mainland Chinese media did not report the story. In June, Bloomberg News published an article detailing the family wealth of Xi Jinping, the designated successor to President Hu. Although Bloomberg’s website has been blocked in China ever since, no response to the story came from Xi or from any representative for him or his family.
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