Chinese censors curb Panama Papers coverage

Relatives of ruling party tied to scandal

China moved swiftly in reacting to reports and online chats about the Panama Papers leak, largely banning the topic and related search terms at news organizations and social media channels in the country.

A group of over 100 news organizations worldwide — coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — published stories Sunday about the inner workings of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which helps politicians, businessmen, athletes and celebrities create offshore accounts for untraceable funds.

The political fallout from the consortium’s investigative stories, based on 11.5 million documents that were leaked anonymously, continued this week as Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped aside Tuesday amid pressure.

Several prominent Chinese names appear in the documents, according to the ICIJ’s report.

“The files reveal offshore companies linked to the family of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping,” the report said. “Family members of at least eight current or former members of China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s main ruling body, have offshore companies arranged though Mossack Fonseca. They include President Xi’s brother-inlaw, who set up two British Virgin Islands companies in 2009.”

The revelation will not be easy to find online for Chinese readers, though. Internet censors also blocked the stories by the ICIJ’s and several of its publishing partners, including Spain’s El País, France’s Le Monde, Süddeutsche

Zeitung in Germany, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., and the United Kingdom and U.S. editions of The Guardian, according to ICIJ, citing reports from news organizations and analytics by GreatFire.org, which monitors Web censorship in China.

The People’s Daily, an official daily newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, and state broadcaster China Central Television have not reported on the affair, according to The Wall

Street Journal.

A search for “Panama” on the website of the China Daily, an English daily in China, renders one wire story — written by Agence France-Presse — related to the investigation. Five stories related to the Panama Papers appeared on Xinhua’s English website, but they referred to the scandals in Iceland, Spain and New Zealand.

Mossack says it “does not foster or promote illegal acts.”

“The files reveal offshore companies linked to the family of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.” International Consortium of Investigative Journalists report