China today dismissed as "groundless" allegations that eight of its ruling Communist Party officials including President Xi Jinping's brother-in-law used off-shore tax heavens while the official media here alleged that "powerful" western forces were behind the 'Panama Papers'.
"For such groundless allegations I have no comments" to make, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a media briefing when asked about the 'Panama Papers'.
He declined to answer another question about whether China, which embarked on new tax reforms, will investigate the offshore accounts.
"As for the Panama papers, I have no comment," Hong said.
A massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents has reportedly exposed the secret offshore dealings of around 140 political figures globally.
The vast stash of records, covering around 40 years, was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Eight of the top former and current officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC) were among the 140 political figures around the world alleged to have links to offshore accounts.
The officials include Xi's brother-in-law Deng Jiagui, who reportedly set up two British Virgin Islands companies in 2009 when Xi was member of the powerful Standing Committee of the CPC.
The official media blacked out the leaked documents.
However, state-run Global Times, while skirting references to CPC officials, hit out at the western countries, saying that they are using such disclosures to target other political leaders.
In an editorial titled 'Powerful force is behind Panama Papers', the CPC-run Global Times said, "In the Internet era, disinformation poses no major risks to Western influential elites or the West".
"In the long-run, it will become a new means for the ideology-allied Western nations to strike a blow to non- Western political elites and key organisations," it said.
While the editorial referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it avoided any mention of the eight former and current CPC officials including Xi's brother-in-law Deng.
In 2014, both New York Times and Bloomberg carried reports of the family members former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Xi had large assets base.
Chinese foreign ministry at thattime had termed the allegations as smear campaigns.
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"Most media led with the allegations that a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin had laundered USD one billion. The Western media has opaquely described it as 'Putin's money laundering'," the Global Times editorial said.
Referring to Wikileaks disclosures by Edward Snowdon, it said, "the Western media has taken control of the interpretation each time there has been such a document dump, and Washington has demonstrated particular influence in it".
"Information that is negative to the US can always be minimised, while exposure of non-Western leaders, such as Putin, can get extra spin," it said.
"The online disinformation makes public opinion precise strikes possible for the West, which always 'digs out' materials from the so-called confidential information. Despite different interests, Western countries are close allies in ideology," it said.
This is perhaps the basis for the concept of the "West", the daily said.
"It is risky to claim the leaked information is fabricated. It can be predicted that such disclosure will not survive if it embarrasses the West. But the West will be happy to see such leaks happen if their opponents are attacked," the editorial said.
"Some are wondering why so many public figures handed over their secrets to the same law firm. But it is only a minor question. For ordinary people, it is useless to wrestle with the power behind the leak, which can wield such a huge amount of documents," it said.
