On December 30, 2012, the New York Times published an article entitled "Family of Chinese Regulator Profits in Insurance Firm’s Rise" (戴相龙亲属借平安获利). Some excerpts:
Relatives of a top Chinese regulator profited enormously from the purchase of shares in a once-struggling insurance company that is now one of China’s biggest financial powerhouses, according to interviews and a review of regulatory filings.
The regulator, Dai Xianglong, was the head of China’s central bank and also had oversight of the insurance industry in 2002, when a company his relatives helped control bought a big stake in Ping An Insurance that years later came to be worth billions of dollars. The insurer was drawing new investors ahead of a public stock offering after averting insolvency a few years earlier.
. . . .
The company that bought the Ping An stake was controlled by a group of investment firms, including two set up by Mr. Dai’s son-in-law, Che Feng, as well as other firms associated with Mr. Che’s relatives and business associates, the regulatory filings show.
. . . .
The Times reported last month that another investment company had also bought shares in Ping An Insurance at an unusually low price on the same day in 2002 as Dinghe Venture Capital. That company, Tianjin Taihong, was later partly controlled by relatives of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, then serving as vice premier with oversight of China’s financial institutions. In late 2007, the shares Taihong bought in Ping An were valued at $3.7 billion.
The investments by Dinghe and Taihong are significant in part because by late 2002, Beijing regulators had granted Ping An an unusual waiver to rules that would have forced the insurer to sell off some divisions. Throughout the late 1990s, the company was fighting rules that would have required a breakup, a move that Ping An executives worried could lead to bankruptcy.This screenshot, taken on December 31, 2012, shows that Sina Weibo was censoring searches for "Dai Xianglong" (戴相龙).
This screenshot, taken on December 31, 2012, shows that Baidu had banned Tieba forums on "Dai Xianglong" (戴相龙).
This screenshot, taken on January 3, 2013, shows that Sina Weibo was censoring searches for "Taihong Company" (泰鸿公司).
This screenshot, taken on January 3, 2013, shows that a report on the New York Times expose published on the China-based Hexun web site here - http://hk.stock.hexun.com/2013-01-02/149701906.html - was deleted.
