HONG KONG — At least three of the seven people on the Chinese Communist Party’s most powerful committee, including President Xi Jinping, have relatives who have controlled secretive offshore companies, the organization that has publicized a trove of leaked documents about hidden wealth reported Wednesday.
The disclosures by the organization, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, risked additional embarrassment for Chinese authorities, already unnerved and infuriated by the organization’s leaks of the documents, known as the Panama Papers.
Chinese government censors have moved aggressively since the first release of leaked documents Sunday to purge any media’s mention of them in China, going so far as to block Internet searches and online discussions that involve the words “Panama Papers.’’
The documents, which came from Mossack Fonseca, a boutique Panamanian law firm that specializes in creating tax shelters and secretive corporations for wealthy clients, have jolted political leaders and other powerful figures around the world. But they are considered especially sensitive in China, where the Communist Party, under Xi, has pledged to eradicate corruption within its ranks and seeks to portray itself as a champion of equality, despite some of the world’s most glaring income disparities.
The information made public by the consortium Wednesday included material on the Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, the seven-member group, all men, that wields ultimate power in the country.
The daughter-in-law of Liu Yunshan, China’s propaganda chief, was once a shareholder and director of a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, and the son-in-law of Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli was a shareholder in three companies domiciled in the British tax haven, the consortium reported.
Xi is the third member of the Politburo committee cited in the report as having a relative who controlled offshore companies. The ties of Xi’s brother-in-law, Deng Jiagui, to offshore companies have been known since 2012, when a Bloomberg News article detailed the business empire of Deng and his wife, the president’s sister.
The consortium’s review of the leaked documents found that Deng had acquired three additional offshore companies, well before Xi became China’s top leader and made a crackdown on corruption one of the centerpieces of his leadership.
The disclosures provide further insight into how China’s political elite have tapped into the global network of lawyers and wealth managers who, for a fee, can set up complex corporate structures that often have the effect of cloaking vast personal wealth.
The repercussions from the documents leak was felt in other parts of the world.
Iceland’s already fragile coalition government was thrown into further uncertainty after the country’s prime minister said he had not resigned but had stepped aside for an “unspecified’’ period after leaked documents linked him to an offshore company.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was the latest high-profile politician to face scrutiny over the issue, denying he had meant to evade taxes by putting his company offshore.
?Tax Justice Network says US is becoming a tax haven. C7.
