China squelches Panama reports on hidden wealth
The setting sun lights up the Panama City skyline, Monday, April 4, 2016. Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varelasays says his government will cooperate “vigorously” with any judicial investigation arising from the leak of a vast trove of information on the offshore financial dealings of the world’s rich and famous. An international coalition of media outlets Sunday published investigations it said stemmed from the leak of 115 million records kept by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca on behalf of clients. AP
BEIJING — China’s Internet censors and state media outlets are squelching reports on hidden wealth drawn from documents leaked from a Panama-based law firm that name relatives of current and retired Chinese politicians, including President Xi Jinping.
Searches for articles on websites and social media postings featuring the words “Panama documents” could not be opened Tuesday to view their content.
However, some searches for Panama-related news resulted in stories mentioning soccer player Lionel Messi and others featured in the documents not related to China.
Meanwhile, the nationalistic tabloid Global Times published an editorial saying an unidentified “powerful force” was behind the document leak. It said the main targets were opponents of the West, especially Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The paper made no mention of any involvement by Chinese figures.
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