Briefings - 827. page

On October 25, 2012, the New York Times carried an article titled, “Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader.” The article alleged that Wen’s extended family "controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion." On October 28, 2012, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao carried an article reporting that the newspaper received a faxed statement from two lawyers in Beijing on behalf of Wen Jiabao’s family declaring that the claims made in the New York Times article were not true.

The statement stressed that Wen Jiaobao’s immediate family members do not hold any stocks and that the businesses they are involved in are legitimate. According to the article, Wen Jiabao’s mother has no other income or assets other than her monthly pension. Wen himself does not get involved in his family member’s business activities, nor does he pass any legislation as a result of his family members’ businesses. The statement also said that other relatives and their friends are responsible for their own business dealings. The lawyers’ statement stated that the family will maintain the right to pursue legal action against the New York Times.
 
Source: Mingpao, October 28, 2012
http://news.mingpao.com/20121028/caa1h.htm
New York Times, October 25, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?pagewanted=all

On October 26, 2012, Xinhua posted two news articles about Bo Xilai. The first one carried an announcement from the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress that the Chongqing People’s Congress had removed Bo Xilai from his post as the Deputy to the National People’s Congress. In the second article the Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that Bo is currently under investigation for suspected crimes.

Source: Xinhua, October 26, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2012-10/26/c_113513618.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2012-10/26/c_123876952.htm

On October 24, 2012, Xinhua reprinted an article from another state media, China Youth Daily, which reported that the Guangzhou Military Command General Hospital has a computerized system that automatically matches and allocates organs to waiting patients. According to the article, “In this nationally connected system, a computer matches organs with patients waiting for a transplant without any human intervention.” The hospital is one of 160 involved in a pilot program for this system. On October 10, 2012, the Ministry of Health announced that it has formulated an interim guideline for obtaining and allocating organs, which will soon be released.

[Editor’s note: Such an effort by China’s Ministry of Health has been viewed as a response to mounting reports about forced organ harvesting in China in which the organs of prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, are placed on a list as being available on-demand for those waiting for a match. Two popular videos that have spread online about this matter can be found at http://youtu.be/P0GFXnco-LU; and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvAOOwvJMZs&feature=plcp]

Source: China Youth Daily reprinted by Xinhua, October 24, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/health/2012-10/24/c_123863531.htm

On October 22, 2012, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), released information about officials who returned money they had previously obtained illegally. According to the release, the Party issued an anti-corruption guide in January 2010. Since that time, 83,195 Party officials voluntarily returned cash, securities, and bonds worth over 771 million yuan (about U.S.$123 million) to Party authorities. The release said that, in addition to the amount that was returned, the Party disciplinary commission also reported that it had confiscated 392 million yuan of illegal gains. During the same period of time, the Party’s disciplinary committee investigated and punished more than 3,500 Party officials in a bid to crack down on corruption inside the Party. Since January 2011, “more than 1 million government officials above division level reported their personal matters to higher authorities; of those, 100% of those at the mid-level of management reported personal matters.”

Source: Xinhua, October 23, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/yuqing/2012-10/23/c_123857808.htm

On October 22, 2012, China Review News published an article saying that, according to a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee held by Hu Jintao, the CCP plans to amend the Party Constitution at its 18th National Congress on Nov. 8, 2012.

The article did not say what the amendment to the Party Constitution will be. The issue of Mao Zedong’s thoughts was not mentioned in the article.

Source: China Review News, October 22, 2012
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1022/7/6/8/102276803.html?coluid=151&kindid=0&docid=102276803&mdate=1022173247

On July 27, 2012, Boxun published an article that a Discipline Inspection Cadre of the Chinese Communist Party had submitted. The CCP official wrote about how he had found out about the forced organ harvesting business in one small city in China. To his surprise, the entire court system in the city, including the court, prison, detention center and doctors were involved in harvesting organs from prisoners. In the end, the CCP Provincial Discipline Inspection Cadre decided to arrest the court president only, but let all the others who had been involved in the organ harvesting business go home without any punishment.

Source: Boxun, July 27, 2012
http://www.boxun.com/news/gb/yuanqing/2012/07/201207270511.shtml