Chinese princelings – the cover-up gets more difficult

China-watchers are amused by statistics quoted by Chinese researchers alleging that over 90 per cent of Chinese billionaires are the children of leading Communist Party cadres – and by the Government’s hyper-sensitive refutation of the allegations. This is interesting on several counts. Firstly, these statistics come not from some foreign source, but from official organisations within China, who must have known how sensitive the subject is. Central media control is clearly slipping.

And, while the researchers must have known that the government wouldn’t like it, they will also have known that the revelations would strike a chord among the grassroots. Chinese nationals are usually happy to defend their government against Western criticism; but no one regards these allegations as implausible. Ironically, it is one of the better Chinese qualities which renders the story so credible: almost all Chinese regard promoting the life chances of their children as the highest good, and so it is entirely likely that senior leaders will do the same. (Strangely Mao was an exception; he let his son get killed in Korea like everybody else’s.)

An amusing angle on this comes from one of the Chinese-language papers which circulate among Chinese communities in the UK, which are completely outside PRC control. One article refers to last month’s story about a corruption case in Namibia involving a company managed by Hu Haifeng, son of President Hu Jintao. This has, of course, gone completely unmentioned in the official Chinese media. However, as the paper notes, the Chinese internet community has noticed that web searches on “Namibia” or “Hu Haifeng” have been coming up blank, and are putting two and two together for themselves…