Chinese PM’s family reject “hidden riches” claim, threaten legal action

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lawyers for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's family have rejected New York Times claims that they have amassed "hidden riches" of billions of dollars.

In a statement carried by Hong Kong media, they said that while some of the family were involved in business activities none of it was illegal.

The US newspaper reported on Friday, October 26 that Mr Wen's family controlled assets worth at least $2.7bn .

It responded to the statement on Sunday, saying it stood by the story.

China has condemned the report as a smear, and NYT sites are blocked in the country, as are references to the report on micro-blogging sites.

Bai Tao of the Junhe Law Office and Wang Weidong of the Grandall Law Firm released the statement late on Saturday evening responding to the "untrue" New York Times report.

"The so-called 'hidden riches' of Wen Jiabao's family members in The New York Times' report does not exist," the statement said.

The lawyers also denied that Mr Wen had any role in his family's business activities, nor allowed them to influence policy.

One of the central claims of the report was that Yang Zhiyun had a $120m investment in Ping An Insurance.

The statement ended with an apparent threat of legal action.

"We will continue to make clarifications regarding other untrue reports by the New York Times, and reserve the right to hold it legally responsible," it said.

But Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy expressed confidence in the report.

"We are standing by our story, which we are incredibly proud of and which is an example of the quality investigative journalism The Times is known for," she wrote in an email quoted by the newspaper.