Former Premier's Daughter Li Xiaolin Denies Corruption Claims, China's Web Sites Censor Searches for Her Name

Li Xiaolin's Denial Posted on
China Power's Sina Weibo

On October 13, 2013, China's official news agency Xinhua published an article entitled "Li Xiaolin Responds to 'Suspicious Insurance Deals': Malicious Defamation" (李小琳回应“涉保险交易”报道：恶意中伤). Some excerpts:

Li Xiaolin was born in 1961, and received a Masters degree in power system and automation from Tsinghua University in 1988, and was a visiting scholar at the Sloan Business School of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. In 2008 she became Chairperson of China Power.
. . . .
According to overseas media, China Power International Chairperson Li Xiaolin was involved with a transaction getting foreign investment into China's insurance industry. On the evening of October 11 China Power posted an announcement on its official Sina Weibo stating that Li Xiaolin had never had any engagement with any insurance company, and the rumors posted online regarding suspected insurance transactions were malicious and base defamation. 

李小琳1961年出生，1988年获清华大学电力系统及自动化专业工学硕士学位，后往美国麻省理工学院斯隆商学院任访问学者。2008年开始担任中电国际董事长。
. . . .
据外媒日前报道，中国电力国际有限公司董事长李小琳卷入外资进入中国保险业的交易。中电国际10月11日晚间在其官方微博上澄清，李小琳未与任何保险公司有个人往来，网上关于其涉及什么保险交易的谣言，纯属恶意卑劣的中伤。

Li's denial was presumably in response to an article published by the Telegraph on October 10 entitled "Daughter of 'Butcher of Tiananmen Square' Brokered Secret Deal for Insurance Giant."

The Xinhua article did not mention that Li Xiaolin is the daughter of Li Peng (李鹏) the former Premier of China.

These screenshots were taken on October 11, 2013 and show that Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, and Baidu's PostBar (贴吧 Tieba), were censoring searches for "Li Xiaolin" (李小琳).

These screenshots were taken on October 14, and show that, while a search for "Li Xiaolin" on Baidu's Knowledge (知道 Zhidao a Q&A product) returns no results, and a Baidu search for "Li Xiaolin site:zhidao.baidu.com" returns a censorship notice, the same search on Soso indicates Baidu in fact has hundreds of questions containing her name.

These screenshots show that Qihoo, Sogou, and Yahoo.cn were all censoring searches for "Li Xiaolin."