Wealthy ideology: Chinese elite secretly keeps personal fortunes abroad

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL 

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Today, making a huge wealth has become the ideology of even the communists and socialists worldwide. That is the direct outcome of dismantling of Soviet Union, as well as communist system.

The practice of code mixing and consequent joint operation of capitalism and socialism has done away with even the remote chance of communist ideology survive anywhere, and China is the fittest example to quote now.

According to reliable reports, the Chinese political and corporate elite uses offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), one of the world’s major tax havens, to secretly store their personal fortunes.

The regular consignment of riches to the British Virgin Islands provides a glimpse into the extraordinary growth of social inequality in Chinese society, and the intimate nexus between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, their relatives, and a burgeoning layer of ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs.

Seeking to generate a new crop of internationally approved capitalists, China promotes crony capitalism as a new communist policy.  These are not ordinary Chinese people but select ones from upper layer of political elite and bureaucracy.

Nearly 22,000 Chinese citizens, including some living in Hong Kong, have accounts in the BVI. Among them are the relatives of at least five current or former members of the CCP’s politburo, including a brother-in-law of Chinese president Xi Jinping, and the son of ex-premier Wen Jiabao, along with others with close family ties to the regime.

Significantly, the list also features the son-in-law of Deng Xiaoping, the principal architect of capitalist restoration in China from 1978 onward.

An estimated one to four trillion dollars in untraced assets has reportedly been moved out of China since 2000, through a complex web of companies and intermediaries. Leading European and American-based banks, such as UBS, PricewaterhouseCooper and Credit Suisse, work as middlemen for Chinese clients in these arrangements.

The global financial firms Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNat and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited help the neo-communist Chinese clients create offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts, obviously on a heavy premium. .

State seems to be regulating the wealth flow from Beijing into other nations. High secrecy is maintained about the accounts and Chinese money flow. The interests of these figures are a tightly guarded secret, with no requirement for officials or their relatives to publicly disclose their finances.

State policy for crony capitalism has already generated many rich Chinese to complete with global  rich. The policies of capitalist restoration pursued by the CCP regime since the late 1970s have produced a staggering social chasm. According to figures cited in the Guardian, the 100 richest men in China are worth around $300 billion, while the poorest 300 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Needless to say communist road is gradually ending in China which is fast leading towards Capitalism.

However, the Chinese capitalism could be different form the world varieties available now.