Oct 26, 2012 6:58 PM
总理家人隐秘的财富
This is a Chinese-language version of an investigation by The New
York Times showing that the family of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao,
who has staked a position as a populist and a reformer, owns about $2.7
billion in assets.
北京 — — 中国总理温家宝的母亲曾是华北的一名教师，他的父亲在毛泽东时代的政治运动中曾被送去养猪。在去年的一次演讲中，温家宝总理说，他的童年被打上了“穷苦、动荡和饥荒”的印记。
然而，公司与监管记录显示，现年90岁的总理母亲杨志云不仅不再贫穷，而且绝对富裕。记录显示，仅她名下一项对中国一家大型金融企业的投资就曾在5年前价值1.2亿美元（约合7.6亿元人民币）。
没人知晓丈夫已经去世的杨志云是如何积累这笔财富的。但这一过程发生在她儿子被提拔进中国的统治精英阶层之后。温家宝先在1998年升任国务院副总理，并在五年后出任总理。
《纽约时报》的调查显示，温家宝担任领导职务期间，他的很多亲属变得极为富有。其中包括温家宝的儿子、女儿、弟弟及妻弟。对公司与监管记录的调查显示，在
总理的亲属中，有些人的生意风格十分强势，他们掌控了价值不低于27亿美元（约合170亿元人民币）的资产。
很多情况下，这些亲属的名字都掩藏在多层涉及朋友、同事、商业伙伴与远亲的合伙企业和投资载体背后。此番财务解析细致而不同寻常地揭示出，在经济高速发展、政府影响和私人财富重叠交错的中国，拥有政治人脉的人物是如何利用自己沟通政商的能力谋取利益。
资料显示，与大多数中国的新企业不同，这个家族的生意不时从国有企业获得金融支持，包括中国最大的电信运营商之一中国移动。其他时候，这些企业得到了一些
亚洲最富有的商业巨头的支持。《纽约时报》发现，温家宝的亲属在银行、珠宝公司、度假村、基础设施项目和电信公司中持有股份，其中部分股权是通过离岸机构
持有的。
他们持股的对象包括位于北京的一处别墅开发项目、中国北方的一家轮胎工厂、一家曾参与修建包括标志建筑“鸟巢”(Bird’s Nest)在内的一些北京奥运场馆的公司，以及平安保险，世界上最大的金融服务公司之一。
今年70岁的温家宝，作为一个仍然严重依靠政府带动的经济体的总理，
在为其亲属带来巨大财富的主要行业中拥有广泛的权力。比如，中国公司如果不经过他手下的机构审批，就不能在证券交易所上市。他在决定是否批准能源与电信等
战略行业中的大型投资项目方面，也起着关键作用。
由于中国政府甚少公开自己的决策过程，所以还不清楚温家宝在大多数政策或法规决策中是否施加了影响，或施加了什么影响。但在一些情况下，他的亲属却试图从这些决策带来的机会中获利。
例如，根据基于政府记录进行的估算，他弟弟的公司曾从政府那里得到了价值超过3千万美元（约合1.89亿元人民币）的合同与补贴，负责处理一些中国大城市
的污水和医疗垃圾。这些合同都是在2003年非典型肺炎(SARS)疫情之后温家宝下令对医疗垃圾处理加强监管之后宣布的。
2004年，温家宝领导下的国务院免除了平安保险等公司所受经营范围上的限制之后，该公司在其首次公开发行股票中募资18亿美元（约合113亿元人民
币），其当下的市值超过了600亿美元。而由温家宝的亲属和他们的朋友、同事控制的合伙人公司在公开发行之前对平安保险公司进行了投资，并从中获取巨额利
润。
2007年，也就是对相关持股进行公开披露的最后一年，《纽约时报》一份经过外部审计人员核实的调查报告显示，这些合伙人公司持有股票的总价值在当时高达22亿美元（约合139亿元人民币）。
中国平安保险在一份声明中表示，该公司不知晓股东背后投资实体的背景。声明还说，中国平安保险无法获悉股东买卖股份背后的动机。
尽管中国共产党的条例要求高级官员公开自己和直系亲属的财产，但却没有法律法规对哪怕是最高层官员的亲属做出禁令，禁止他们成为交易撮合者或者主要投资
人，而这一漏洞实际上让一些人可以打着家族的名号做生意。一些中国人认为，允许共产党领导人的家人从中国长期的经济繁荣中获利，对确保精英阶层支持市场化
改革十分重要。
但是，提交给中国监管机构的资料显示，温家宝亲属的商业交易有时被掩盖了起来。其运作方式暗示，他们急切地想回避公众的关注。调查发现，他们拥有的股权通常掩盖在错综复杂的股权网络当中，其所有权可能距实际运营的公司有五层控股公司之遥。
在温家宝母亲的案例中，《纽约时报》通过调查公开记录和政府颁发的身份证，并对三家中国投资公司的所有权进行追踪之后，估算出她在平安保险持有的股份在
2007年价值1.2亿美元（约合7.6亿元人民币）。他母亲在平安持有的股票被登记在一家名为泰鸿(Taihong)的控股公司名下，该公司注册地是总
理的故乡天津。
这些看上去是在掩饰自身财富的努力显示，围绕着中国精英统治阶层的政治氛围相当紧张，很多人坐拥巨富，却不愿引人注目。6月份，彭博资讯社
(Bloomberg News)报道，中国下届国家主席的既定人选、副主席习近平的亲属积累了数亿美元的财产，中国政府随即在国内屏蔽了彭博社的网站。
“高层领导中，没有哪家没有这样的问题，”与温家宝相识20多年的一位前同事在不具名的条件下表示，“他的政敌正在有意泄露这些消息给他抹黑。”
《纽约时报》将调查发现交给了中国政府，并请求置评。中国外交部拒绝回答有关这些投资和涉及总理及其亲属的问题。温家宝的亲属也拒绝置评或没有回复置评请求。
女富商段伟红的泰鸿公司就是总理母亲与其他亲属持有的平安股份的投资平台。段伟红说，这些投资实际上都是她自己的。段伟红是总理的同乡，也是总理夫人的好朋友。她表示，这些股份之所以放在总理亲属的名下，是为了隐藏她自己持股的规模。
她表示，“我在投资平安的时候，不希望被媒体关注，”段女士表示，“所以我让亲戚找了一些人代我持有这些股份。”
她说，自己的公司选了这些亲属作为名义股东，只是一个“巧合”。股权登记过程需要股东提供自己的身份证号码与签名。直到《纽约时报》向她展示了这些投资者的姓名，她一直表示，她不知道这些人和温家宝有亲戚关系。
此次调查的公司与监管记录的时间跨度为1992年到2012年，调查中没有发现温家宝名下有任何财产。从这些材料中无法看出，温家宝是否曾对任何可能会给亲属的财产带来影响的决定进行回避，也不能断定这些亲属是否在投资上得到过优待。
在任期内的很长时间里，温家宝一直被关于其亲属试图利用其职位谋利的谣言和猜测缠身。但截止到《纽约时报》此次调查为止，并没有出现任何关于这个家族财富的详细报道。
他的妻子张蓓莉是中国珠宝与宝石领域的权威人士之一，自己本身就是一位成功的女商人。《纽约时报》发现，她通过管理后来被私有化的国有钻石公司，帮助亲属戚将一些少数股权扩充为价值十亿美元级别的投资组合，涵盖保险、科技和房地产行业。
温家宝夫妇唯一的儿子曾将自己开创的一家科技公司以1千万美元（约合6千3百万元人民币）的价格卖给香港首富李嘉诚(Li
Ka-shing)家族，并利用另一个投资平台成立了新天域资本公司(New Horizon
Capital)。相关记录与对银行业人士的采访显示，目前，该公司是中国最大的私募股权公司之一， 其投资合伙人包括了新加坡政府。
记录显示，总理的弟弟温家宏(Wen Jiahong)掌控着2亿美元（约合12.6亿元人民币）的资产，其中包括污水处理厂与回收企业。
作为总理，温家宝阐明了自己是一个平民主义者和改革派的立场。他平易近人，经常接触普通百姓，尤其是在发生自然灾害的危急时刻。官方媒体将他爱称为“人民的总理”和“温爷爷”。
尽管还不清楚温家宝对自己家族的财富知道多少，但在维基解密(WikiLeaks)2010年公布的美国国务院(State Department)外交电文中，有一份电文显示，温家宝对其亲属的商业交易有所了解，且相当不满。
根据这份2007年发送的电报，一名在中国出生并供职于上海一家美国公司的高管告诉美国外交官，“温家宝对家人的活动很反感，但他无力或不愿限制他们。”
中国的钻石女王
在中国的精英圈子里，总理夫人张蓓莉很有钱而且在一定程度上控制着中国的珠宝贸易，这一点不是秘密。但《纽约时报》在查阅了公司和监管记录之后发现，只是在她丈夫步入中国的最高领导层后，她那些利润丰厚的钻石生意才变得异常成功。
张蓓莉是一名专门研究宝石的地质学家，普通中国人基本上不知道她。她很少和总理一起出行或公开露面。目前几乎没有几张这对夫妇在一起的正式照片。尽管曾和
她共事的人说，她喜欢翡翠和精美的钻石，但他们也表示，和其他高级领导人的亲属很像，她的着装通常都很低调，并没有表现得魅力四射，而是宁愿在幕后施展影
响。
维基解密公布的美国国务院文件还表明，温家宝曾因张蓓莉在钻石贸易中利用了两人之间的关系而考虑过离婚。台湾的电视台2007年报道称，张蓓莉在北京的一
个贸易展上购得了一对价值约为27.5万美元（当时约合200万元人民币）的翡翠耳环。但根据当时的新闻报道，透露此消息的那名台湾展商后来否认了该说
法，中国官方新闻审查部门迅速封锁了国内对该事件的报道。
一位曾和温家宝的亲属合作过银行业人士称，“在领导层的圈子里，她的商业活动是众所周知的。”这位银行业人士还表示，张蓓莉的办公室致电商业人士也不是什么不寻常的事，“如果你接到了电话，怎么能说不呢？”
张蓓莉最初得势是在上世纪90年代，当时她还是地质部的一名监管人员。那时，中国的珠宝市场尚处于起步阶段。
当她丈夫在中国的最高领导机构所在地中南海任职时，张蓓莉正在制定珠宝与宝石贸易的行业标准。她协助在北京成立了国家珠宝玉石质量监督检验中心，在上海成立了上海钻石交易所。这是该行业内权力最大的两家机构。
在中国，政府长期以来控制着市场，珠宝行业监管部门常常决定着哪家公司可以开设钻石加工厂，谁可以获准进入珠宝零售市场。国家监管部门甚至还制定了规则，
要求钻石出售方要为在中国售出的钻石购买鉴定证书，而那些认证书就来自北京那家由张蓓莉管理的国营检验中心。
因此，当卡地亚(Cartier)和戴比尔斯(DeBeers)的主管来到中国，并希望能在这里销售钻石和珠宝时，他们经常拜访人称中国“钻石皇后”的张蓓莉。
总部设在瑞士的世界珠宝联合会(World Jewelry Confederation)的主席加埃塔诺·卡瓦列里(Gaetano Cavalieri)已经认识张蓓莉很多年了，他表示：“在中国，她是最重要的人。她就是中外合伙人之间的桥梁 。”
曾和张蓓莉共过事的人说，她早在1992年就开始游走在官员和女商人这两个角色之间了。作为国有的中国地矿宝石总公司负责人，她开始用国有资金投资新兴企业。在1998年她丈夫被任命为副总理时，她正忙着和亲戚朋友一起开办企业。
根据公开披露的信息，她经营的那家国有企业投资了数家下属钻石企业。在这些公司当中，有好几家是由张蓓莉的亲戚或她在国家珠宝玉石检验中心的前同事经营的私有企业。
比如，1993年，张蓓莉负责的那家国企帮助成立了北京戴梦得宝石公司，这是一家大型的珠宝生产商。股东名册显示，一年后，她的一个弟弟张剑鸣和她的两名
在政府的同事以个人的名义购得了该公司80%的股份。北京戴梦得投资的深圳戴梦得宝石公司则是由她丈夫的弟弟温家宏所控制。
中宝戴梦得是她最大的成功之一。这家企业的出资方包括由她担任一把手的国有企业中国地矿宝石总公司。中宝戴梦得和另外一家由她弟弟张剑鹍管理的国企有生意往来。张剑鹍曾是浙江嘉兴的一名官员，那里也是张蓓莉的家乡。
1999年夏，在达成了从俄罗斯和南非进口钻石的协议后，中宝戴梦得在上海证券交易所(Shanghai Stock
Exchange)上市，募集到了3.25亿元人民币。根据公司文件，这次募股为张蓓莉的家人带来了大约800万美元（当时约合6600万元人民币）。
尽管她从未被列为股东，但她以前的同事和生意伙伴表示， 张蓓莉早年成立的钻石合伙企业最终成为了一系列企业的核心，她帮助自己的家族和同事获得了那些企业的股份。
《纽约时报》没有发现，温家宝曾利用自己的政治影响力对亲属所投资的钻石公司进行关照。然而，之前的生意伙伴表示，温家宝家族在钻石行业和其他领域的成功往往都得到了富有商人的资金扶持，那些商人试图借此讨好总理一家。
“温家宝成为总理后，他妻子出售了部分钻石相关的投资，转而进入新的领域，” 一名同该家族有过生意往来的中国高管说。
因为怕遭政府报复，这位高管请求匿名。公司记录显示，从上世纪90年代末开始，一群富商轮番买进这些钻石公司的大量股份。出售方通常是温家宝的亲戚，然
后，在这些商人的帮助下，他们将所得再投资到房地产和金融等有利可图的项目中。
根据公司记录，富商通常会向由这些亲戚部分控制的投资合伙公司提供会计人员和办公地点。
“当他们合伙成立公司时，”一位和温家成员一起成立过公司的商人说，“张蓓莉留在幕后。这就是他们的模式。”
唯一的儿子
今年早些时候的一个晚上，总理的独子温云松坐在一个名为“秀”的雪茄吧里，这是一间位于北京柏悦酒店的顶级酒吧。在场的两位客人透露，他当时正喝着鸡尾酒，身边围绕着北京的新贵们。这些人提着名牌包，身着昂贵的西装。
在中国，人们普遍认为高层领导人的下一代构成了一个特殊的阶层，人称“太子党”。这些人往往持有常青藤(Ivy League)名校的文凭，享受贵宾待遇，甚至能在热门股票发行时以优惠价格获得股票。
在市场准入受到政府严格控制的中国，人们都认为太子党好办事。而近几年，还没有几个太子党像年届不惑的温云松这样有魄力。他的英文名是温斯顿(Winston)。
经过调查温云松的各种投资，并采访了与他相识多年的人士，《纽约时报》发现他涉足的交易领域极其广泛，获利甚丰，这即使是在他太子党同辈中也是出类拔萃的。
诸如中国移动这样的国有大机构都和他合作成立了新公司。在近些年，温云松还和好莱坞(Hollywood)制片商就融资活动展开洽谈。
苦恼于中国尚无精英级别的寄宿学校，温云松最近雇佣了康涅狄格州的乔特罗斯玛丽中学(Choate)和霍奇科斯学校(Hotchkiss)的校长来负责成立一所位于京郊、投资1.5亿美元的私立学校，这所学校目前正在建设中。
另外，根据公司记录及熟悉其家庭投资情况的人士的陈述，温云松与其妻还拥有珠宝公司、网络公司和动画公司的股份，他们甚至通过非直接的方式，拥有政府鼎力
支持的在线支付企业联动优势科技有限公司(Union Mobile Pay)的股份。一直以来，他们住在位于北京市中心的总理官邸内。
一位与温云松经常见面的风险投资家说：“他不会对用自己的影响来办事感到不好意思。”
温云松拒绝接受采访，但他的妻子杨小萌在一次电话采访中表示，针对自己丈夫的商业活动的批评并不公平。
“所有关于他的报道都是错误的，”她表示，“他真的已经不怎么做生意了。”
温云松毕业于北京的精英学校，并在北京理工大学(Beijing Institute of
Technology)取得工科学位。他后来出国，在加拿大温莎大学(University of
Windsor)取得了材料科学的硕士学位，并在美国伊利诺伊州埃文斯顿的西北大学(Northwestern
University)凯洛格商学院(Kellogg School of Business)取得了工商管理硕士学位。
熟悉温云松生意的人透露，他2000年回国后，在五年时间里和别人一起成功打造了三家科技公司。随后他将其中两家公司出售给了香港的企业家，其中包括亚洲首富李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)的家族。
经查阅香港与北京的公司注册信息发现，温云松在2000年成立了他的第一家公司优创科技(Unihub
Global)，提供互联网数据服务，启动资金为500万美元。资金来源于一些关系密切的亲戚与他母亲以前在政府和钻石行业的同事，以及香港第二富有家族
的家长郑裕彤(Cheng Yu-Tung)身边的一个人。这家公司的最早客户是一些国有证券公司和平安保险。总理的亲属持有大量平安保险股份。
2005年，他进行了更大胆的尝试，开始进军私募股权行业，和一群西北大学的中国同学成立了新天域资本公司。公司很快从各方投资者募集了1亿美元的资金。
投资人中有日本软银集团(Softbank)旗下的思佰益控股(SBI Holdings)和新加坡政府的投资基金淡马锡(Temasek)。
在温云松的领导下，新天域迅速蹿升为私人股本行业的佼佼者，公司在生物科技、太阳能、风能和建筑设备制造领域投资。据思佰益控股，迄今为止，该公司已经向投资者返还了4.3亿美元，相当于逾四倍的获利。
香港行业出版物《亚洲私募股权评论》(Asia Private Equity Review)的主编凯瑟琳·吴(Kathleen Ng)说：“他们的第一个基金就一炮打响。这使得他们可以募得更多资金。”
目前，新天域管理着逾25亿美元的资金 。
然而，温云松的一些交易却给总理带来了一些不必要的关注。
2010年，就在一家名为四环医药的企业公开发行股票仅两个月前，新天域收购了该公司9%的股权。香港证交所做出裁定，这笔后期投资违反了相关规定，并强迫新天域退回股权。即便这样，该公司还是在这笔交易中获利4650万美元。
不久以后，新天域宣布，温云松已经不再负责公司的日常运作。他转而加入了国有的中国卫星通信集团公司。这家公司和中国的空间项目有联系，目前，他已经成为了该公司的董事长。
富豪们
在上世纪90年代末期，段伟红通过自己的泰鸿地产公司在总理的家乡天津管理着一幢办公楼与几处房产。她当时还不到30岁，拥有南京理工大学的学位。
在2002年，段伟红与几位温家宝的亲戚展开了商业合作，将自己的房地产公司转换成为了同名的投资公司。这家公司最终使段伟红变得非常富有。
现年43岁的段伟红与总理的关系尚不明朗。在数次采访中，她先是表示，自己并不认识温家任何人，但随后又承认自己是总理夫人张蓓莉的朋友。与其他几位中国
企业家一样，在和这些亲属以及他们的关系网中的朋友与同事展开合作后，她的财富规模急速上升。然而她表示，自己和这些人在平安股权上的关系只存在于纸面
上，并没有真正的金钱往来。
段伟红与另外几个商人一直以来都在帮助温家宝家族，他们的作用至关重要，在关键时刻启动大型项目，以帮助温家宝家族成员设立投资平台，并从中获利。这些生意伙伴里包括6位来自中国各地的亿万富豪。
成立于天津的泰鸿获得了惊人的回报。公司披露信息与段伟红的研究生论文显示，2002年，在平安保险首次公开发行股票之前，泰鸿以6500万美元购得了平安3%的股份。5年后，这些股票的市值为37亿美元。
随后，通过自己在香港的一家公司，段伟红和两家国有企业成立了一个合资公司，并在北京首都国际机场附近购得了一大块土地。如今，在这片土地上，坐落着一个
不断壮大的货运物流中心。去年，泰鸿将这一项目中该公司拥有的53%股权出售给了一家新加坡企业，售价为近4亿美元。
《纽约时报》通过查阅公司披露材料发现，这笔交易，连同她对豪华酒店、北京的别墅开发项目，以及在香港上市的北京金隅股份有限公司的投资，对段伟红的财富积累起到了至关重要的作用。北京金隅是中国最大建筑材料企业之一。
通过查阅报表还发现，在过去10年中，泰鸿有着三十多位个人股东，其中很多人要么是温家宝的亲属，要么是张蓓莉的前同事。
其他与总理的亲属合作过的富商拒绝就本报道置评。段伟红强烈否认自己与总理或其亲属存在任何金钱往来，并表示，将平安股票放在他人名下，只为避免媒体关注。“投资平安的钱全是我自己的” ，曾经是平安监事会成员的段伟红表示。“我做的一切都是合法的。”
与温家宝的亲属进行合作的另一位富商是掌握着香港集团企业新世界发展公司的郑裕彤(Cheng Yutung)。《福布斯》(Forbes)数据显示，他的身价为150亿美元，是亚洲最大的富豪之一。
在20世纪90年代，新世界正在中国内地为一家专门经营高档珠宝的姊妹公司寻找落脚点。1998年，这家名为周大福(Chow Tai Fook)的连锁珠宝零售企业在中国内地开设了第一家门店。
相关记录与对当事人的采访显示，郑裕彤的手下向背后有温家宝的亲属支持的钻石企业进行了投资。还与这些企业一起，共同投资了一系列企业实体，其中包括生命
人寿 (Sino-Life)、国民信托(National
Trust)和平安保险。企业披露的报表显示，郑裕彤作出的这些投资现在至少价值50亿美元。连锁珠宝企业周大福也得到了蓬勃发展。今天，该公司42亿美
元的年收入中，60%来自中国市场。
本报未能联系到87岁的郑裕彤。新世界发展公司也没有回复打过去的电话。
对温家宝的影响
2007年冬，就在温家宝开始第二个总理任期之前，他呼吁采取新措施打击腐败，尤其是高级官员的腐败。
“各级主要负责同志要……带头执行中央关于党政干部廉洁自律的各项规定。”在北京举行的一次党内高层官员参加的会议上，温家宝说：“领导干部特别是高级干部要严格管束子女、亲属和身边工作人员，防止他们利用自己的影响谋取不正当利益。”
上述讲话，与温家宝较早前推动对公务员实行更严格的财产申报规定，要求高级官员公布家庭资产的行动是一致的。
由于中国共产党并不公布此类信息，并不清楚温家宝是否进行过关于自己家庭财产的申报。尽管如此，《纽约时报》发现的温家宝亲属持有的资产中，很多可能并不需要进行披露，因为那些资产并不是以温家宝，及他的妻子和子女的名义持有的。
《纽约时报》通过调查发现并经由外部审计人员核查的27亿美元资产中，约有80%是由温家宝的母亲、弟弟、弟媳、温家宝妻子的两名兄弟、温家宝的儿媳及亲
家等人所持有的。他们都不受中国共产党公开财产的规定所限制。《纽约时报》对相关亲属的中国平安保险持股总规模进行了计算，其结果得到了审计师的确认。总
额包括亲属曾经持有但在2004年至2006之间售出的股票，以及2007年末剩下的股票。在此之后，他们平安保险的持股状况就没有再进行过公开披露。
法律专家表示，估测准确的价值并不容易，因为可能存在一些并不对外披露、指定真正受益者的附加协议。
哥伦比亚大学法学院(Columbia University Law School)教授克提斯·米尔哈特(Curtis
Milhaupt)曾研究过中国公司架构，他表示：“复杂的企业架构并不一定有阴谋诡计。但在企业所有权和政治权力紧密交织的中国体制之下，壳公司就会放
大资产所有人不明、资金来源不明的问题。”
在温家宝的家族所控制的企业中进行投资的人里，有很多长期的商业伙伴、前同事，以及大学同学，其中包括温云松在西北大学的同学于剑鸣，以及温家宝的弟弟温家宏长期以来的同事张玉宏。这些人都没有回复就本报道置评的请求。
披露温家宝家族持有的财富，可能会给温家宝带来政治上的打击。
下个月，中共十八大将在北京召开，共产党将宣布下一届领导人人选。但是这个筛选过程却已经陷入几十年来最严重的政治丑闻中 — — 试图进入最高层的重庆市委书记薄熙来倒台。
在北京，因已到退休年龄，温家宝即将卸任总理一职。数位政治分析人士表示，即使在离任之后，作为党内老领导，他还将在幕后保有强大的政治力量，但这些显示其亲属曾在他任期内积累巨额财富的材料，几乎肯定会削弱他在党内的地位。
“这将影响他手中剩下的政治力量，” 研究中国领导层的专家、加州克莱蒙麦肯纳学院(Claremont McKenna College)的政府学教授裴敏欣(Minxin Pei)表示。
温家宝的支持者表示，他本人并没有从家族的商业往来中获利，甚至可能也不太了解这些商业往来的规模。
今年3月，温家宝暗示，他至少是知晓自己的亲属引发了不少传言。在北京举行的一场向全国电视直播的新闻发布会上，温家宝坚称，自己担任公职期间“没有谋过私利”。
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china-chinese-version.html?ref=china&pagewanted=all
October 25, 2012
Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader
BEIJING — The mother of
China’s
prime minister was a schoolteacher in northern China. His father was
ordered to tend pigs in one of Mao’s political campaigns. And during
childhood, “my family was extremely poor,” the prime minister,
Wen Jiabao, said in a speech last year.
But now 90, the prime minister’s mother, Yang Zhiyun, not only left
poverty behind, she became outright rich, at least on paper, according
to corporate and regulatory records. Just one investment in her name, in
a large Chinese financial services company, had a value of $120 million
five years ago, the records show.
The details of how Ms. Yang, a widow, accumulated such wealth are not
known, or even if she was aware of the holdings in her name. But it
happened after her son was elevated to China’s ruling elite, first in
1998 as vice prime minister and then five years later as prime minister.
Many relatives of Wen Jiabao, including his son, daughter, younger
brother and brother-in-law, have become extraordinarily wealthy during
his leadership, an investigation by The New York Times shows. A review
of corporate and regulatory records indicates that the prime minister’s
relatives — some of whom, including his wife, have a knack for
aggressive deal making — have controlled assets worth at least $2.7
billion.
In many cases, the names of the relatives have been hidden behind layers
of partnerships and investment vehicles involving friends, work
colleagues and business partners. Untangling their financial holdings
provides an unusually detailed look at how politically connected people
have profited from being at the intersection of government and business
as state influence and private wealth converge in China’s fast-growing
economy.
Unlike most new businesses in China, the family’s ventures sometimes
received financial backing from state-owned companies, including China
Mobile, one of the country’s biggest phone operators, the documents
show. At other times, the ventures won support from some of Asia’s
richest tycoons. The Times found that Mr. Wen’s relatives accumulated
shares in banks, jewelers, tourist resorts, telecommunications companies
and infrastructure projects, sometimes by using offshore entities.
The holdings include a villa development project in Beijing; a tire
factory in northern China; a company that helped build some of Beijing’s
Olympic stadiums, including the well-known “Bird’s Nest”; and Ping An
Insurance, one of the world’s biggest financial services companies.
As prime minister in an economy that remains heavily state-driven, Mr.
Wen, who is best known for his simple ways and common touch, more
importantly has broad authority over the major industries where his
relatives have made their fortunes. Chinese companies cannot list their
shares on a stock exchange without approval from agencies overseen by
Mr. Wen, for example. He also has the power to influence investments in
strategic sectors like energy and telecommunications.
Because the Chinese government rarely makes its deliberations public, it
is not known what role — if any — Mr. Wen, who is 70, has played in
most policy or regulatory decisions. But in some cases, his relatives
have sought to profit from opportunities made possible by those
decisions.
The prime minister’s younger brother, for example, has a company that
was awarded more than $30 million in government contracts and subsidies
to handle wastewater treatment and medical waste disposal for some of
China’s biggest cities, according to estimates based on government
records. The contracts were announced after Mr. Wen ordered tougher
regulations on medical waste disposal in 2003 after the SARS outbreak.
In 2004, after the State Council, a government body Mr. Wen presides
over, exempted Ping An Insurance and other companies from rules that
limited their scope, Ping An went on to raise $1.8 billion in an initial
public offering of stock. Partnerships controlled by Mr. Wen’s
relatives — along with their friends and colleagues — made a fortune by
investing in the company before the public offering.
In 2007, the last year the stock holdings were disclosed in public
documents, those partnerships held as much as $2.2 billion worth of Ping
An stock, according to an accounting of the investments by The Times
that was verified by outside auditors. Ping An’s overall market value is
now nearly $60 billion.
Ping An said in a statement that the company did “not know the
background of the entities behind our shareholders.” The statement said,
“Ping An has no means to know the intentions behind shareholders when
they buy and sell our shares.”
While Communist Party regulations call for top officials to disclose
their wealth and that of their immediate family members, no law or
regulation prohibits relatives of even the most senior officials from
becoming deal-makers or major investors — a loophole that effectively
allows them to trade on their family name. Some Chinese argue that
permitting the families of Communist Party leaders to profit from the
country’s long economic boom has been important to ensuring elite
support for market-oriented reforms.
Even so, the business dealings of Mr. Wen’s relatives have sometimes
been hidden in ways that suggest the relatives are eager to avoid public
scrutiny, the records filed with Chinese regulatory authorities show.
Their ownership stakes are often veiled by an intricate web of holdings
as many as five steps removed from the operating companies, according to
the review.
In the case of Mr. Wen’s mother, The Times calculated her stake in Ping
An — valued at $120 million in 2007 — by examining public records and
government-issued identity cards, and by following the ownership trail
to three Chinese investment entities. The name recorded on his mother’s
shares was Taihong, a holding company registered in Tianjin, the prime
minister’s hometown.
The apparent efforts to conceal the wealth reflect the highly charged
politics surrounding the country’s ruling elite, many of whom are also
enormously wealthy but reluctant to draw attention to their riches. When
Bloomberg News reported
in June that the extended family of Vice President Xi Jinping, set to
become China’s next president, had amassed hundreds of millions of
dollars in assets, the Chinese government blocked access inside the
country to the Bloomberg Web site.
“In the senior leadership, there’s no family that doesn’t have these
problems,” said a former government colleague of Wen Jiabao who has
known him for more than 20 years and who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. “His enemies are intentionally trying to smear him by letting
this leak out.”
The Times presented its findings to the Chinese government for comment.
The Foreign Ministry declined to respond to questions about the
investments, the prime minister or his relatives. Members of Mr. Wen’s
family also declined to comment or did not respond to requests for
comment.
Duan Weihong, a wealthy businesswoman whose company, Taihong, was the
investment vehicle for the Ping An shares held by the prime minister’s
mother and other relatives, said the investments were actually her own.
Ms. Duan, who comes from the prime minister’s hometown and is a close
friend of his wife, said ownership of the shares was listed in the names
of Mr. Wen’s relatives in an effort to conceal the size of Ms. Duan’s
own holdings.
“When I invested in Ping An I didn’t want to be written about,” Ms. Duan
said, “so I had my relatives find some other people to hold these
shares for me.”
But it was an “accident,” she said, that her company chose the relatives
of the prime minister as the listed shareholders — a process that
required registering their official ID numbers and obtaining their
signatures. Until presented with the names of the investors by The
Times, she said, she had no idea that they had selected the relatives of
Wen Jiabao.
The review of the corporate and regulatory records, which covers 1992 to
2012, found no holdings in Mr. Wen’s name. And it was not possible to
determine from the documents whether he recused himself from any
decisions that might have affected his relatives’ holdings, or whether
they received preferential treatment on investments.
For much of his tenure, Wen Jiabao has been at the center of rumors and
conjecture about efforts by his relatives to profit from his position.
Yet until the review by The Times, there has been no detailed accounting
of the family’s riches.
His wife, Zhang Beili, is one of the country’s leading authorities on
jewelry and gemstones and is an accomplished businesswoman in her own
right. By managing state diamond companies that were later privatized,
The Times found, she helped her relatives parlay their minority stakes
into a billion-dollar portfolio of insurance, technology and real estate
ventures.
The couple’s only son sold a technology company he started to the family
of Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, for $10 million, and used
another investment vehicle to establish New Horizon Capital, now one of
China’s biggest
private equity firms, with partners like the government of Singapore, according to records and interviews with bankers.
The prime minister’s younger brother, Wen Jiahong, controls $200 million
in assets, including wastewater treatment plants and recycling
businesses, the records show.
As prime minister, Mr. Wen has staked out a position as a populist and a
reformer, someone whom the state-run media has nicknamed “the People’s
Premier” and “Grandpa Wen” because of his frequent outings to meet
ordinary people, especially in moments of crisis like natural disasters.
While it is unclear how much the prime minister knows about his family’s
wealth, State Department documents released by the WikiLeaks
organization in 2010 included a cable that suggested Mr. Wen was aware
of his relatives’ business dealings and unhappy about them.
“Wen is disgusted with his family’s activities, but is either unable or
unwilling to curtail them,” a Chinese-born executive working at an
American company in Shanghai told American diplomats, according to the
2007 cable.
China’s ‘Diamond Queen’
It is no secret in China’s elite circles that the prime minister’s wife,
Zhang Beili, is rich, and that she has helped control the nation’s
jewelry and gem trade. But her lucrative diamond businesses became an
off-the-charts success only as her husband moved into the country’s top
leadership ranks, the review of corporate and regulatory records by The
Times found.
A geologist with an expertise in gemstones, Ms. Zhang is largely unknown
among ordinary Chinese. She rarely travels with the prime minister or
appears with him, and there are few official photographs of the couple
together. And while people who have worked with her say she has a taste
for jade and fine diamonds, they say she usually dresses modestly, does
not exude glamour and prefers to wield influence behind the scenes, much
like the relatives of other senior leaders.
The State Department documents released by WikiLeaks included a
suggestion that Mr. Wen had once considered divorcing Ms. Zhang because
she had exploited their relationship in her diamond trades. Taiwanese
television reported in 2007 that Ms. Zhang had bought a pair of jade
earrings worth about $275,000 at a Beijing trade show, though the source
— a Taiwanese trader — later backed off the claim and Chinese
government censors moved swiftly to block coverage of the subject in
China, according to news reports at the time.
“Her business activities are known to everyone in the leadership,” said
one banker who worked with relatives of Wen Jiabao. The banker said it
was not unusual for her office to call upon businesspeople. “And if you
get that call, how can you say no?”
Zhang Beili first gained influence in the 1990s, while working as a
regulator at the Ministry of Geology. At the time, China’s jewelry
market was still in its infancy.
While her husband was serving in China’s main leadership compound, known
as Zhongnanhai, Ms. Zhang was setting industry standards in the jewelry
and gem trade. She helped create the National Gemstone Testing Center
in Beijing, and the Shanghai Diamond Exchange, two of the industry’s
most powerful institutions.
In a country where the state has long dominated the marketplace, jewelry
regulators often decided which companies could set up
diamond-processing factories, and which would gain entry to the retail
jewelry market. State regulators even formulated rules that required
diamond sellers to buy certificates of authenticity for any diamond sold
in China, from the government-run testing center in Beijing, which Ms.
Zhang managed.
As a result, when executives from Cartier or De Beers visited China with
hopes of selling diamonds and jewelry here, they often went to visit
Ms. Zhang, who became known as China’s “diamond queen.”
“She’s the most important person there,” said Gaetano Cavalieri,
president of the World Jewelry Confederation in Switzerland. “She was
bridging relations between partners — Chinese and foreign partners.”
As early as 1992, people who worked with Ms. Zhang said, she had begun
to blur the line between government official and businesswoman. As head
of the state-owned China Mineral and Gem Corporation, she began
investing the state company’s money in start-ups. And by the time her
husband was named vice premier, in 1998, she was busy setting up
business ventures with friends and relatives.
The state company she ran invested in a group of affiliated diamond
companies, according to public records. Many of them were run by Ms.
Zhang’s relatives — or colleagues who had worked with her at the
National Gemstone Testing Center.
In 1993, for instance, the state company Ms. Zhang ran helped found
Beijing Diamond, a big jewelry retailer. A year later, one of her
younger brothers, Zhang Jianming, and two of her government colleagues
personally acquired 80 percent of the company, according to shareholder
registers. Beijing Diamond invested in Shenzhen Diamond, which was
controlled by her brother-in-law, Wen Jiahong, the prime minister’s
younger brother.
Among the successful undertakings was Sino-Diamond, a venture financed
by the state-owned China Mineral and Gem Corporation, which she headed.
The company had business ties with a state-owned company managed by
another brother, Zhang Jiankun, who worked as an official in Jiaxing,
Ms. Zhang’s hometown, in Zhejiang Province.
In the summer of 1999, after securing agreements to import diamonds from
Russia and South Africa, Sino-Diamond went public, raising $50 million
on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The offering netted Ms. Zhang’s family
about $8 million, according to corporate filings.
Although she was never listed as a shareholder, former colleagues and
business partners say Ms. Zhang’s early diamond partnerships were the
nucleus of a larger portfolio of companies she would later help her
family and colleagues gain a stake in.
The Times found no indication that Wen Jiabao used his political clout
to influence the diamond companies his relatives invested in. But former
business partners said that the family’s success in diamonds, and
beyond, was often bolstered with financial backing from wealthy
businessmen who sought to curry favor with the prime minister’s family.
“After Wen became prime minister, his wife sold off some of her diamond
investments and moved into new things,” said a Chinese executive who did
business with the family. He asked not to be named because of fear of
government retaliation. Corporate records show that beginning in the
late 1990s, a series of rich businessmen took turns buying up large
stakes in the diamond companies, often from relatives of Mr. Wen, and
then helped them reinvest in other lucrative ventures, like real estate
and finance.
According to corporate records and interviews, the businessmen often
supplied accountants and office space to investment partnerships partly
controlled by the relatives.
“When they formed companies,” said one businessman who set up a company
with members of the Wen family, “Ms. Zhang stayed in the background.
That’s how it worked.”
The Only Son
Late one evening early this year, the prime minister’s only son, Wen
Yunsong, was in the cigar lounge at Xiu, an upscale bar and lounge at
the Park Hyatt in Beijing. He was having cocktails as Beijing’s nouveau
riche gathered around, clutching designer bags and wearing expensive
business suits, according to two guests who were present.
In China, the children of senior leaders are widely believed to be in a
class of their own. Known as “princelings,” they often hold Ivy League
degrees, get V.I.P. treatment, and are even offered preferred pricing on
shares in hot stock offerings.
They are also known as people who can get things done in China’s heavily
regulated marketplace, where the state controls access. And in recent
years, few princelings have been as bold as the younger Mr. Wen, who
goes by the English name Winston and is about 40 years old.
A Times review of Winston Wen’s investments, and interviews with people
who have known him for years, show that his deal-making has been
extensive and lucrative, even by the standards of his princeling peers.
State-run giants like China Mobile have formed start-ups with him. In
recent years, Winston Wen has been in talks with Hollywood studios about
a financing deal.
Concerned that China does not have an elite boarding school for Chinese
students, he recently hired the headmasters of Choate and Hotchkiss in
Connecticut to oversee the creation of a $150 million private school now
being built in the Beijing suburbs.
Winston Wen and his wife, moreover, have stakes in the technology
industry and an electric company, as well as an indirect stake in Union
Mobile Pay, the government-backed online payment platform — all while
living in the prime minister’s residence, in central Beijing, according
to corporate records and people familiar with the family’s investments.
“He’s not shy about using his influence to get things done,” said one
venture capitalist who regularly meets with Winston Wen.
The younger Mr. Wen declined to comment. But in a telephone interview,
his wife, Yang Xiaomeng, said her husband had been unfairly criticized
for his business dealings.
“Everything that has been written about him has been wrong,” she said.
“He’s really not doing that much business anymore.”
Winston Wen was educated in Beijing and then earned an engineering
degree from the Beijing Institute of Technology. He went abroad and
earned a master’s degree in engineering materials from the University of
Windsor, in Canada, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Business
at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., just outside Chicago.
When he returned to China in 2000, he helped set up three successful
technology companies in five years, according to people familiar with
those deals. Two of them were sold to Hong Kong businessmen, one to the
family of Li Ka-shing, one of the wealthiest men in Asia.
Winston Wen’s earliest venture, an Internet data services provider
called Unihub Global, was founded in 2000 with $2 million in start-up
capital, according to Hong Kong and Beijing corporate filings. Financing
came from a tight-knit group of relatives and his mother’s former
colleagues from government and the diamond trade, as well as an
associate of Cheng Yu-tung, patriarch of Hong Kong’s second-wealthiest
family. The firm’s earliest customers were state-owned brokerage houses
and Ping An, in which the Wen family has held a large financial stake.
He made an even bolder move in 2005, by pushing into private equity when
he formed New Horizon Capital with a group of Chinese-born classmates
from Northwestern. The firm quickly raised $100 million from investors,
including SBI Holdings, a division of the Japanese group SoftBank, and
Temasek, the Singapore government investment fund.
Under Mr. Wen, New Horizon established itself as a leading private
equity firm, investing in biotech, solar, wind and construction
equipment makers. Since it began operations, the firm has returned about
$430 million to investors, a fourfold profit, according to SBI
Holdings.
“Their first fund was dynamite,” said Kathleen Ng, editor of Asia
Private Equity Review, an industry publication in Hong Kong. “And that
allowed them to raise a lot more money.”
Today, New Horizon has more than $2.5 billion under management.
Some of Winston Wen’s deal-making, though, has attracted unwanted attention for the prime minister.
In 2010, when New Horizon acquired a 9 percent stake in a company called
Sihuan Pharmaceuticals just two months before its public offering, the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange said the late-stage investment violated its
rules and forced the firm to return the stake. Still, New Horizon made a
$46.5 million profit on the sale.
Soon after, New Horizon announced that Winston Wen had handed over
day-to-day operations and taken up a position at the China Satellite
Communications Corporation, a state-owned company that has ties to the
Chinese space program. He has since been named chairman.
The Tycoons
In the late 1990s, Duan Weihong was managing an office building and
several other properties in Tianjin, the prime minister’s hometown in
northern China, through her property company, Taihong. She was in her
20s and had studied at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology.
Around 2002, Ms. Duan went into business with several relatives of Wen
Jiabao, transforming her property company into an investment vehicle of
the same name. The company helped make Ms. Duan very wealthy.
It is not known whether Ms. Duan, now 43, is related to the prime
minister. In a series of interviews, she first said she did not know any
members of the Wen family, but later described herself as a friend of
the family and particularly close to Zhang Beili, the prime minister’s
wife. As happened to a handful of other Chinese entrepreneurs, Ms.
Duan’s fortunes soared as she teamed up with the relatives and their
network of friends and colleagues, though she described her relationship
with them involving the shares in Ping An as existing on paper only and
having no financial component.
Ms. Duan and other wealthy businesspeople — among them, six billionaires
from across China — have been instrumental in getting
multimillion-dollar ventures off the ground and, at crucial times,
helping members of the Wen family set up investment vehicles to profit
from them, according to investment bankers who have worked with all
parties.
Established in Tianjin, Taihong had spectacular returns. In 2002, the
company paid about $65 million to acquire a 3 percent stake in Ping An
before its initial public offering, according to corporate records and
Ms. Duan’s graduate school thesis. Five years later, those shares were
worth $3.7 billion
The company’s Hong Kong affiliate, Great Ocean, also run by Ms. Duan,
later formed a joint venture with the Beijing government and acquired a
huge tract of land adjacent to Capital International Airport. Today, the
site is home to a sprawling cargo and logistics center. Last year,
Great Ocean sold its 53 percent stake in the project to a Singapore
company for nearly $400 million.
That deal and several other investments, in luxury hotels, Beijing villa
developments and the Hong Kong-listed BBMG, one of China’s largest
building materials companies, have been instrumental to Ms. Duan’s
accumulation of riches, according to The Times’s review of corporate
records.
The review also showed that over the past decade there have been nearly
three dozen individual shareholders of Taihong, many of whom are either
relatives of Wen Jiabao or former colleagues of his wife.
The other wealthy entrepreneurs who have worked with the prime
minister’s relatives declined to comment for this article. Ms. Duan
strongly denied having financial ties to the prime minister or his
relatives and said she was only trying to avoid publicity by listing
others as owning Ping An shares. “The money I invested in Ping An was
completely my own,” said Ms. Duan, who has served as a member of the
Ping An board of supervisors. “Everything I did was legal.”
Another wealthy partner of the Wen relatives has been Cheng Yu-tung, who
controls the Hong Kong conglomerate New World Development and is one of
the richest men in Asia, worth about $15 billion, according to Forbes.
In the 1990s, New World was seeking a foothold in mainland China for a
sister company that specializes in high-end retail jewelry. The retail
chain, Chow Tai Fook, opened its first store in China in 1998.
Mr. Cheng and his associates invested in a diamond venture backed by the
relatives of Mr. Wen and co-invested with them in an array of corporate
entities, including Sino-Life, National Trust and Ping An, according to
records and interviews with some of those involved. Those investments
by Mr. Cheng are now worth at least $5 billion, according to the
corporate filings. Chow Tai Fook, the jewelry chain, has also
flourished. Today, China accounts for 60 percent of the chain’s $4.2
billion in annual revenue.
Mr. Cheng, 87, could not be reached for comment. Calls to New World Development were not returned.
Fallout for Premier
In the winter of 2007, just before he began his second term as prime
minister, Wen Jiabao called for new measures to fight corruption,
particularly among high-ranking officials.
“Leaders at all levels of government should take the lead in the
antigraft drive,” he told a gathering of high-level party members in
Beijing. “They should strictly ensure that their family members, friends
and close subordinates do not abuse government influence.”
The speech was consistent with the prime minister’s earlier drive to
toughen disclosure rules for public servants, and to require senior
officials to reveal their family assets.
Whether Mr. Wen has made such disclosures for his own family is unclear,
since the Communist Party does not release such information. Even so,
many of the holdings found by The Times would not need to be disclosed
under the rules since they are not held in the name of the prime
minister’s immediate family — his wife, son and daughter.
Eighty percent of the $2.7 billion in assets identified in The Times’s
investigation and verified by the outside auditors were held by, among
others, the prime minister’s mother, his younger brother, two
brothers-in-law, a sister-in-law, daughter-in-law and the parents of his
son’s wife, none of whom is subject to party disclosure rules. The
total value of the relatives’ stake in Ping An is based on calculations
by The Times that were confirmed by the auditors. The total includes
shares held by the relatives that were sold between 2004 and 2006, and
the value of the remaining shares in late 2007, the last time the
holdings were publicly disclosed.
Legal experts said that determining the precise value of holdings in
China could be difficult because there might be undisclosed side
agreements about the true beneficiaries.
“Complex corporate structures are not necessarily insidious,” said
Curtis J. Milhaupt, a Columbia University Law School professor who has
studied China’s corporate group structures. “But in a system like
China’s, where corporate ownership and political power are closely
intertwined, shell companies magnify questions about who owns what and
where the money came from.”
Among the investors in the Wen family ventures are longtime business
associates, former colleagues and college classmates, including Yu
Jianming, who attended Northwestern with Winston Wen, and Zhang Yuhong, a
longtime colleague of Wen Jiahong, the prime minister’s younger
brother. The associates did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Revelations about the Wen family’s wealth could weaken him politically.
Next month, at the 18th Party Congress in Beijing, the Communist Party
is expected to announce a new generation of leaders. But the selection
process has already been marred by one of the worst political scandals
in decades, the downfall of Bo Xilai, the Chongqing party boss, who was
vying for a top position.
In Beijing, Wen Jiabao is expected to step down as prime minister in
March at the end of his second term. Political analysts say that even
after leaving office he could remain a strong backstage political force.
But documents showing that his relatives amassed a fortune during his
tenure could diminish his standing, the analysts said.
“This will affect whatever residual power Wen has,” said Minxin Pei, an
expert on Chinese leadership and a professor of government at Claremont
McKenna College in California.
The prime minister’s supporters say he has not personally benefited from
his extended family’s business dealings, and may not even be
knowledgeable about the extent of them.
Last March, the prime minister hinted that he was at least aware of the
persistent rumors about his relatives. During a nationally televised
news conference in Beijing, he insisted that he had “never pursued
personal gain” in public office.
“I have the courage to face the people and to face history,” he said in
an emotional session. “There are people who will appreciate what I have
done, but there are also people who will criticize me. Ultimately,
history will have the final say.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/business/global/family-of-wen-jiabao-holds-a-hidden-fortune-in-china.html?_r=1&ref=china
“我敢于面对人民、面对历史。”温家宝动情地说：“知我罪我，其惟春秋。”
