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A Chinese Embassy official recently wrote to Congress to lobby against legislation requiring Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to produce a report on corruption and hidden wealth held by Chinese leaders through their relatives, including President Xi Jinping.
Wang Xijun, a counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, wrote to the office of Rep. Andy Ogles, Tennessee Republican, criticizing legislation mandating the DNI report. The DNI report on Chinese corruption was due to Congress in December under a defense bill signed into law in late 2022. A DNI spokesman has said intelligence analysts are working on the legally required report.
Mr. Ogles recently introduced additional legislation that would give the DNI six more months to produce the report and also require officials to testify on the issue.
Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, and could pass in some form in the coming days, a congressional aide said.
“This will serve as another campaign to slander and defame the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese leadership,” Mr. Wang wrote on June 18, adding the pending report “seriously challenges China’s political red line and constitutes a blatant political provocation.”
Mr. Wang said the Chinese Communist Party “serves the people” and produced “two miracles” — rapid economic growth and social stability.
The Chinese diplomat said U.S. efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the party would produce “a mistaken policy” and sour U.S.-China relations.
“We hereby urge Congressman Ogles to stop pushing forward this act,” he said.
The Congressional Research Service, in a report previewing the forthcoming DNI report, stated earlier this month that senior Chinese leaders, including Mr. Xi, are engaged in corruption and hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth by using relatives to disguise their illicit activities.
The CRS report stated that Mr. Xi by 2012 had amassed at least $376 million in company investments, an indirect 18% stake in a rare-earth mineral company worth more than $311 million, and $20.2 million holdings in a technology company. The investments were made through relatives, a common practice used in hiding forbidden wealth and corruption by Chinese communist officials in China.
The DNI report is expected to undermine Mr. Xi’s large-scale anti-corruption campaign that included investigations into millions of ruling party members.
Since 2012, 266 members of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee were ousted, allegedly for corruption. Among them were Defense Minister Li Shangfu, also a former member of the Central Military Commission, and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, the CRS report said.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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