Government/Politics - 137. page

(In Hillsborough, California, in the United States) after Tiffany Li’s family provided a bond worth over US$70 million to bail Tiffany, 31, out while she was going through a murder trial, Tiffany Li and her family were exposed as having ties to a former top Chinese General.

Tiffany Li and her boyfriend were charged with the murder of Li’s ex-boyfriend, Keith Green, who was found dead last May. The judge granted Li’s motion for bail in the amount of US$35 million. Li’s family provided 13 real estate properties as collateral (collateral needs to be twice the required cash amount). Li was then freed on bail.

This bail amount was a record high for San Mateo County, California and ranked eighth highest bail in U.S. history ever to be posted in a state court.

People started to dig into Tiffany Li’s background. It was found that her mother Li Jihong was the sister of Li Jinai (李继耐), former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General and Director of the PLA’s General Political Department. An unofficial report indicated that the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection had been investigating Li Jinai for corruption since August 2016.

Li Jihong, 62, immigrated to the U.S. many years ago. In 1992, she founded Top Toyo Lotus Construction Development, Inc. in the U.S. Top Toyo Lotus invested $2.4 million in a joint venture (Ji Tai Construction & Installation Company) with a military construction unit, to conduct a real estate development business in China.

Source: Duowei, April 20, 2017
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2017-04-20/59811598.html

According to an article that Sing Tao Daily published, the Politburo of the Central Committee recently held a conference and invited the Central Bank, the Banking Regulatory Commission, the Security Regulatory Commission, and the Insurance Regulatory Commission. During the meeting, Xi Jinping stressed that these agencies should place safeguarding financial security as their top priority. Xi stated that, even though the overall financial risk can be controlled, there must be measures in place to prevent risk from going beyond a certain point so that the agencies “never overlook any risk and never pass by any hidden gap.” Xi also initiated an effort to conduct a complete inspection and investigation in the financial and Internet banking industry. Moreover Xi stressed that it is vital to have the Party and the central administration placed in a position to lead the financial industry. According to the article, there is a need to improve the mechanism that allows the Party to take the lead and form a financial risk prevention system nationwide.

The article quoted the analysis which stated that there might be the possibility of forming a central financial committee like the ones that were formed in 1998 following the financial crisis in Asia. Wen Jiabao, then prime minister, headed that committee, which manages the operation of the financial agencies under the central administration. In 2003 the committee was dissolved and the workload was shared among the Banking Regulatory Commission, the Security Regulatory Commission and the Insurance Regulatory Commission. The article then quoted the words that the director of the China Academy of New Supply-Side Economics gave, “As we all know, the Party has leadership over everything in China. However, if the Party’s leadership is combined with financial security work, it is obvious that it carries certain meanings.”

Source: Sing Tao Daily, April 28, 2017
http://std.stheadline.com/daily/news-content.php?id=1589691&target=2

The Sina website recently carried an article on how the Anbang Insurance Group (a Chinese holding company whose subsidiaries deal mainly with insurance, banking, and financial services) grew from a company with registered capital of 500 million yuan (US$72 million) in 2004 to 61.9 billion yuan (US$8.97 billion) in 2017. The source of the article was Caixin’s 2017 17th edition. The article found that Anbang was under suspicion for faking the registered capital that it used for the insurance fund under its control. According to the article, Anbang has gone through seven major capital growth spurts since 2014. The analysis of its capital structure and stockholders indicates that behind its 37 stockholders, the company sits on a network of 101 companies and 86 stockholders and that all of them can be traced to the relatives of Wu Xiaohui, Chief Executive Officer of Anbang in Zhejiang Province. In the international market, Anbang has been aggressively acquiring insurance companies, banks, and real estate in Europe, the U.S., and Korea, including the Waldorf Hotel in New York City in 2014. However, starting in 2016 Anbang has faced major obstacles in its overseas acquisitions. It failed in the US$14 billion acquisition of the Starwood Hotel as well as the acquisition of Fidelity & Guaranty Life, due to its inability to meet the company’s stockholder disclosure requirements that the Department of NY Financial Services had set.

According to an article that Apple Daily published on February 3, 2015, Wu Xiaohui, Anbang’s CEO, was reported to be separated from his wife, who is the second daughter of Deng Xiaoping. The couple got married in 2004. It was Wu’s third marriage. It is believed that Wu used his relationship to start Anbang and that the separation was an indication that Deng’s family wants to cut its ties with the Anbang group.

Source:
Caixin, April 29, 2017
http://finance.caixin.com/2017-04-29/101084867.html/
Sina, April 29, 2017
http://www.sina.com.cn/midpage/mobile/index.d.html?docID=fyetwtf8994622&url=finance.sina.cn/insurance/hydt/2017-04-29/detail-ifyetwtf8994622.d.html
Apple Daily, February 3, 2015
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/international/art/20150203/19027111

Radio France International (RFI) reported that China has adopted two new anti-corruption measures that may be used against high-ranking officials.

The first one is that the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s website for reporting corrupt officials allows people to report top ranking officials. The drop down list for the Official Rank field includes “state-level officials” which is the highest rank in China. At first, the options were “State-Level – Members of the Party’s Politburo Standing Committee,” “Vice State-Level – Members of the Party’s Politburo, Vice Premier, State Council Members,” … “Clerk,” and “Unranked Cadres.”

However, visiting the website now, the Official Rank field has been changed to an input box from the dropdown list. It is up to those making the report to write in the rank.

The second one is the re-issuance of “Regulations on Leading Cadres’ Reporting Personal Matters” and “Measures on Handling the Check Result of leading Cadres’ Reporting Personal Matters.”

Xinhua published an article with the Party’s Organization Department’s answers to some questions regarding the Regulation and the Measures. It said that “the Regulation is to focus on a ‘few key people,’ or the Party’s and government’s top officials.” “The other one is to focus on the family affairs and assets of the cadres. Family affairs include marriage, passports and visits to other countries for personal reasons, immigration to other countries, business, and whether they are under investigation. Family assets include income, proceeds from services, real estate, stock, mutual funds, insurance with an investment focus, business, and savings and investments overseas.

Sources:
1. RFI, April 20, 2017
http://cn.rfi.fr/中国/20170420-反腐新姿态-可举报常委级领导人-官员需报国外财产与家人
2. Xinhua, April 19, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-04/19/c_1120839564.htm