CHINA-INTERNAL: LEADERSHIP/ZHOU YONGKANG
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After Chinese authorities announced on July 29 -- just prior to the founding anniversary of the PLA -- that the case against former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang was in the ultimate stage of being finalised, the official Times Weekly reported on Sept. 2 that the authorities were in the process of verifying the precise amount that Zhou is suspected of embezzling. The report said "that the materials required for a public prosecution are being prepared.” The report mentions that Zhou Yongkang’s gains from corruption total hundreds of billions of yuan, or tens of billions of dollars. According to the report, one particular case involving PetroChina, involves over 102 billion yuan ($16.6 billion). The amount is 10 percent of the total annual profit of the 113 central-level enterprises under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in 2013. An inside source, close to PetroChina and Sinopec, told Times Weekly that a number of mid-level officials in the two systems have fled to Canada, the United States, United Arab Emirates and elsewhere, to avoid arrest and have absconded with between 20 and 40 billion yuan ($3.25 to 6.5 billion). Earlier this March, Reuters had reported that Chinese authorities seized $14.5 billion in assets from Zhou Yongkang and his family from both domestic and overseas bank accounts as well as real estate. |