The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Shwe Mann: Article 59 Not Our Only Priority
- Burma’s Inflation Pains Sharpest for Poor Majority: World Bank
- School Hits the Road for Burmese Teashop Boys
- Doctors Warn of Rising ‘Morning-After Pill’ Use, Abuse in Burma
- Thai Court to Decide On Election Complaint; Protest March to Test State of Emergency
- Australia Rejects Claims That Navy Mistreated Asylum Seekers
- Journalist Group Uncovers Chinese Millions in Overseas Trusts
| Shwe Mann: Article 59 Not Our Only Priority Posted: 23 Jan 2014 04:43 AM PST  Opposition leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi, left, sits next to Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann during lunch at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Naypyidaw on June 7, 2013. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy) NAYPYIDAW — Shwe Mann, the Union Parliament speaker and chairman of Burma's ruling party, says he would support an Aung San Suu Kyi presidency, but that changing the constitutional article currently blocking her from the position is not his only priority for amendments. Speaking on Thursday in Naypyidaw, Shwe Mann, who has also expressed ambitions to be Burma's next president in 2015, said his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was not specifically focused on changing Article 59 (F). "I would personally be glad if Ama Gyi becomes president," he told reporters at the Lower House of Parliament, referring to Suu Kyi. Ama Gyi means elder sister in Burmese. "I will not block it, and I would even welcome it by cooperating with her. I will do whatever I can for the good of the country—however I can help at this time. But I am not looking only to amend Article 59 of the Constitution." It was the first time Shwe Mann has directly addressed the issue of amending Article 95. The article prohibits anyone from becoming president if their family members are foreign nationals, and Suu Kyi's two sons hold British citizenship. Shwe Mann has developed a close relationship with Suu Kyi since she was elected to Parliament in 2012, and some Burmese political observers say they believe he would support her if she were able to become president. Late last month his USDP party announced that it had proposed changes to over 50 points in the Constitution, including Article 59. Among the proposals was a recommendation to allow a presidential candidate to take office if his or her children and spouse adopted Burmese citizenship. It is not possible to have dual citizenship in Burma, so Suu Kyi's sons would need to renounce their British citizenship. Suu Kyi said she would allow her sons, both adults, to make their own decision. "Since they turned 21 years old I have not had the right to decide for them," she said in an earlier interview with Radio Free Asia's Burmese service. "It would not be up to the standards of democracy if there was a law to decide for them." Parliament's 109-member Constitutional Review Joint Committee is accepting proposals for constitutional changes and is expected to issue its own recommendations later this month. Asked by The Irrawaddy how the government might respond if Suu Kyi were to boycott the 2015 election, as she has threatened to do in the event that her party's proposed amendments are not adopted, Shwe Mann said it was too early to say. Suu Kyi first raised the possibility of a boycott while speaking to thousands of supporters at a National League for Democracy (NLD) rally in Pegu Division in December. Adopting a harder line on constitutional reform, she warned that those taking part in the election under the current military-drafted charter could see their reputations damaged. "Those who have dignity should not join the 2015 elections unless there is an amendment to the Constitution," she said. "There will be no fair election with the current Constitution." The opposition leader is currently touring the country and holding rallies to drum up support for her campaign to have the 2008 Constitution amended. In Chin State, she said she would wait to see how far constitutional changes went before making a decision about participation in the election. The post Shwe Mann: Article 59 Not Our Only Priority appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Burma’s Inflation Pains Sharpest for Poor Majority: World Bank Posted: 23 Jan 2014 04:34 AM PST  Cashiers behind piles of kyat banknotes in a private bank in Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — The World Bank has added its voice to concerns about Burma's surging inflation, saying price rises prompted by a growing economy would likely have a greater impact on the country's less well-off. Kanthan Shankar, the World Bank's Burma country manager based in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that "certainly it [inflation] is a concern and especially if it is to do with food prices, it tends to affect the poorest." The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a sister organization to the World Bank, said earlier this week that while Burma's economy would likely grow between 7-8 percent over the coming three years, the current 6 percent inflation rate would likely persist. "If you have high growth you have to be concerned that you don't have high inflation, which disproportionately affects the poor," Shankar said, explaining that high inflation could hinder Burma's majority from benefitting from the country's expected robust growth rates in years to come, an expansion that could see the country's economy quadruple is size by 2030, according to a 2013 report by McKinsey Global. A projected increase in budget spending and a drop in the value of the kyat, which was floated in 2012, are other factors likely to fuel inflation Burma's transitional economy—coming out of years of sanctions and often quixotic government policy—means that some typical methods used to curb inflation, such as tax increases, might either be difficult to implement or lack the impact that similar measures might have when implemented in more developed economies. "Tax revenue is growing quickly but remains low; to enable increased spending it should be boosted though broadening the tax base and improving compliance," the IMF said in its Jan. 21 statement on Burma's economy. Tinkering with interest rates, which in Burma have been higher than in neighboring countries in recent years, is another gambit typically attempted by governments seeking to tackle inflation. However attempts to change interest rates in Burma often prompt divisions among businesspeople and bankers, and Than Lwin, deputy chairman of Kanbawza Bank, said that because Burma's current interest rate of 8 percent is above the inflation level of 6 percent, there is no need for now for an adjustment. "Because the interest rate is above inflation, there is no need for a change right now to the interest rate," he told The Irrawaddy, while also voicing concerns that if the interest rate is cut to below the inflation level, it could prompt savers to withdraw cash from local banks and deposit overseas. Either way, inflation is set to remain a problem for the majority of Burma's estimated 50-60 million population, as well as posing a challenge for the Burma government, which said it would prioritize job-creating investment and policies to benefit the country's poor, such as increasing health and education spending. In early January, Burma President Thein Sein sought increased spending for education and health care, increasing their respective budget shares from 5.43 percent to 5.92 percent, and 3.15 percent to 3.38 percent, both still much less than the 12 percent of budget spending sought by the military. But even increased spending on social sectors such as health and education, ostensibly benefitting Burma's less well-off, could fuel inflation, which disproportionately impacts the poor. "Rather than a few people being able to benefit, the benefits [of growth] need to be spread more to the population at large," Shankar said. The World Bank representative was speaking at the launch of Channel News Asia's Burma bureau, the Singapore-based agency's 13th overseas office. CNA is the 10th international news agency to set up shop in Burma, where it has a partnership with SkyNet, a private Burmese TV company. CNA estimates its current audience in Burma at around 200,000 households, out of a total 50 million across the region. The post Burma's Inflation Pains Sharpest for Poor Majority: World Bank appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| School Hits the Road for Burmese Teashop Boys Posted: 23 Jan 2014 04:16 AM PST  After a long day of work, boys at a teashop in Rangoon listen to an English lesson by the Myanmar Mobile Education Project. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON—Kauk Ya has to wake up at 4:30 every morning. While other children his age wait for school buses to arrive, this 13-year old boy starts working, taking orders from customers at a teashop in Rangoon. "I used to go to school, until I finished sixth grade," he says. Born the middle son of a toddy palm climber in Upper Burma, he left the classroom when he was 11 years old because his parents were too poor to support their six children. He found a job at the teashop, sending back every kyat he earned to his family. He also all but gave up on his dream to go to university—at least until recently, when a chance to learn came to him, on a bus. "Our mission is simple: When children can't go to schools, we bring schools to them," says Grace Swe Zin Htike, country director of the Myanmar Mobile Education Project (myME), a program that provides non-formal education via mobile classrooms to children in Burma who are forced to leave school to support their families. The interiors of the buses are converted into mobile classrooms, where children have an opportunity to learn basic literacy in Burmese and English, as well as math, computer skills and critical thinking skills through innovative, interactive instruction. Since last month one of the buses has been driving the streets of Rangoon as part of a six-month pilot project, opening its doors to 120 teashop boys like Kauk Ya who want to resume their studies. Classes meet six days weekly for two hours per session, in the evenings after the boys finish work. "We started with teashops because you can mostly find primary and middle school dropouts working there," says Tim Aye Hardy, director of the project. He says the mobile education project will be expanded later to include four levels of classes, from beginner to advanced, to prepare students for either formal education or vocational training in the future.
"We are just shedding light on what needs to be done and filling in the gap: providing education to some working children who can't go to school. But to address the entire problem, only the government can take care of it," he says. Burmese culture traditionally places a high value on education, and net school enrollment rates are at over 80 percent for both boys and girls. But the drop-out rate is also high. According to Unicef, less than 55 percent of children who enroll actually complete the primary cycle. Over five decades of dictatorship, Burma's government invested very little in the education system. While tuition is free at government's primary schools, parents have long been required to pay for books, school building repairs and even furniture for classrooms—expenses which often present an insurmountable financial obstacle for impoverished households. Facing tough economic conditions under the former regime, families around the country and especially in rural areas have frequently been forced to send their young boys to cities or towns for jobs in teashops or factories. Many girls also drop out but typically help with chores at home, rather than working at teashops. This situation has not been greatly alleviated by education reforms initiated under President Thein Sein since 2011; although his administration has called for free compulsory primary education, offering free textbooks and school supplies to students at the primary level, a lack of income for families means that many children are still required to work. Aung Myo Min, a human rights activist and director of Equality Myanmar, says the mobile education project will not only promote children's rights, but also hopefully help to identify some of the root causes of child labor in the country. "The project is an oasis for working children who cannot go to school," he says, adding, "They should consider a long-term strategy to eliminate child labor. Otherwise, the project will be caught up in an endless cycle." Just minutes after one of the buses arrived at a teashop in Rangoon on a recent evening, 65 child employees hopped on board. Despite a long day of working as waiters, cooks and tea makers, known locally as a phyaw saya (brewmasters), they seemed enthusiastic about the opportunity to practice writing the English alphabet. Others sat around tables inside the teashop, paying attention to the lesson, and when their teacher pointed at a picture on a whiteboard, the students correctly identified it in unison as a "map." "I don't feel tired. Instead, I am happy because I want to learn," says Kauk Ya, the 13-year-old son of the toddy palm climber, while completing an in-class exercise on building simple sentences in English. "I'm just grabbing my chance to learn now, because I want to be a university graduate to get a better job." The post School Hits the Road for Burmese Teashop Boys appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Doctors Warn of Rising ‘Morning-After Pill’ Use, Abuse in Burma Posted: 23 Jan 2014 03:47 AM PST  Boxes of the contraceptive Postinor-2 are seen inside a safe at a public health clinic. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Medical professionals in Burma have used a government report indicating a rise in sales of emergency contraceptive pills to highlight the health risks of the pharmaceuticals' abuse. A paper included in a recently held medical forum said use of pills to prevent pregnancy after sexual intercourse was increasing in Burma. The research, by the Ministry of Health's Department of Medical Research, was small in scope, conducted over a year in 2012-13 in one central Burma town. Researchers asked 67 pharmaceutical shop owners in Mandalay Division's Pyin Oo Lwin Township about customers and sales of the pills. According to the research, most users are teenagers, with sellers reporting that girls as young as 14 years old were purchasing the pill. In Burma, the emergency contraceptives, also known commonly as "morning-after pills," are legally imported by licensed pharmaceutical importers and there are no restrictions in place on sales of the pill. More than 80 percent of the pills in Pyin Oo Lwin were sold without doctor's instructions and health warnings, the research said. The pills contain hormones and are designed to disrupt the ovulation or fertilization that is required for impregnation to occur. Users are advised to take the pill within 72 hours of having unprotected sex, but the sooner a woman takes the pill, the more likely it is to work. Because the pill is not 100 percent effective regardless of when it is taken, medical professionals stress the "emergency" aspect of its use, and say it should not be considered a regular form of contraception. Dr. Ma Thida, a physician at Rangoon's Thukha free clinic and editor of the People's Image journal, said the rise in emergency contraceptives' use should be an issue of national concern, representing a threat to both health and morality. "It means there are a lot of users of these emergency pills, young girls are having sex dismissively, because they don't know the side effects and only know these pills can protect against unexpected pregnancy," Ma Thida said, adding that such sexual behavior marked a "deviation from tradition and custom." "These pills are for emergency cases, not for regular use. It's a kind of hormone control, so if girls are regularly using it, it can have many side effects. For example, if they later want to have a baby after they are married, it can be harder to conceive. Another issue is the pill does not prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases," she said. Ma Thida said the government should tighten regulation of the pills' sale, including requiring that warnings about their possible side effects and physicians' instructions be included in the labeling of the product. Dr. Than Htut, a Myanmar Medical Association central executive committee member, said Burmese people needed better sex education, but traditionally conservative mores often meant parents and teachers shied away from the subject with children. "Parents and teachers are responsible for educating their children, and though we shouldn't compare with other Western countries for extreme sex education, we need more awareness among our society," he said. Unlike many Western countries, abortion is illegal in Burma, upping the stakes for any girl or woman who finds herself pregnant unintentionally. Than Htut said he was concerned that use of the pill was widely misunderstood to include protections that other contraception, such as condoms, does provide, namely preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Echoing Ma Thida's call for greater government regulation, Than Htut added that the Ministry of Health should embark on an awareness campaign to educate the public about emergency contraception. Nandar, a drug store sales associate in Rangoon's North Dagon Township, said most buyers were male but acknowledged that teenage girls would also sometimes purchase the emergency pills. "There are at least three kinds of brands for emergency use, for one it costs under 1,000 kyats [US$1]. Ecee 2 and Postinor brands are in highest demand," she said. The post Doctors Warn of Rising 'Morning-After Pill' Use, Abuse in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Thai Court to Decide On Election Complaint; Protest March to Test State of Emergency Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:12 PM PST  Anti-government protesters stand at the entrance of the Royal Thai Police headquarters in central Bangkok Jan. 22, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) BANGKOK — Thailand's Constitutional Court said it would decide on Thursday whether to accept a case against holding Feb. 2 election that would almost certainly extend the government's shaky grip on power as protesters try to force it from office. The government declared a 60-day state of emergency from Wednesday hoping to prevent an escalation in protests now in a third month. That decree will face a fresh test on Thursday when popular anti-government firebrand Suthep Thaugsuban leads a march through the capital Bangkok. A leading pro-government activist was shot and wounded on Wednesday in Thailand's northeast, a stronghold of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, in what police said was a political attack, adding to fears the violence could spread. Nine people have died and dozens wounded in violence, including two grenade attacks in the capital last weekend. The Election Commission, which has asked for a ruling on the election, argues that the country is in too volatile a state to sensibly hold a national vote and that technicalities mean it is bound to result in a Parliament with too few MPs to form a quorum and approve a legitimate government. "Around 1 pm today, the Court will decide whether the case would be accepted," Constitutional Court secretary-general Chaowana Trimas. The government counters that the decree to hold the election on that date has been signed by the king and cannot be changed. The opposition says it will boycott the vote. Suthep wants democracy suspended so that an appointed "people's council" can push through electoral and political changes. A ruling in favor of the Election Commission would deepen Thailand's political quagmire, already weighing on investor enthusiasm for Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy. The protests are the latest eruption in a political conflict that has gripped the country for eight years. Broadly, it pits the Bangkok middle class and royalist establishment against the mainly poorer supporters of Yingluck and her brother, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006. Fears of Election Day Violence On Wednesday, an unidentified gunman opened fire on Kwanchai Praipana, a leader of Thailand's pro-government "red shirt" movement and a popular radio DJ. The attack in Udon Thani, about 450 km (280 miles) northeast of Bangkok, was the most significant violence outside the Thai capital and illustrates the risk that the turbulence plaguing Bangkok could spread to other areas of Thailand. Just a day before, he had warned of a nationwide fight if the military launched a coup, as widely feared. Several governments have warned their nationals to avoid protest areas in Bangkok, among the world's most visited cities. China called on Thailand to "restore stability and order as soon as possible" through talks. So far the military, which has been involved in 18 actual or attempted coups in the past 81 years, has kept out of the fray. Police are charged with enforcing the state of emergency and are under orders from Yingluck to handle protesters with patience. The emergency decree gives security agencies powers to detain suspects, impose a curfew and limit gatherings but some analysts said it was in part designed to give Yingluck legal protection if police step in. The post Thai Court to Decide On Election Complaint; Protest March to Test State of Emergency appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Australia Rejects Claims That Navy Mistreated Asylum Seekers Posted: 22 Jan 2014 10:04 PM PST  Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, left, talks to her Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa after their meeting as they leave Natalegawa's office in Jakarta on Dec. 5, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Beawiharta) SYDNEY — Australia on Wednesday rejected claims by a group of asylum seekers that they were beaten and suffered burns while being returned to Indonesia by the Australian navy under a policy that has strained ties between the countries. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday aired video of asylum seekers getting treatment for burns they said were caused by navy personnel forcing them to hold onto hot pipes coming out of their boat's engine while it was being towed back to Indonesian waters. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison lashed out at the media for reporting what he called "unsubstantiated allegations" and said that he would conduct no investigation into the incident as he accepted the word of navy personnel. "The Australian government is not going to put up with people sledging [verbally abusing] the Australian navy," he told reporters in Sydney. "I've been given assurances about their conduct and I believe those assurances because I believe in those individuals." Indonesian police confirmed that a group of asylum seekers had required treatment for severe burns on their hands after they were picked up in Indonesian waters on Jan. 6. "I received a report from police in Kupang that they said they were burned because they were forced to hold on to the boat engine," said Agus Barnas, spokesman for the coordinating ministry of legal, political and security affairs. "They said they were forced by the Australians. We are trying to find out more." Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was asked at a news conference on a visit to Washington whether Australia would be willing to accept an Indonesia invitation to send officials to review the evidence. "I cannot imagine for a moment that the professional people that we have in our forces would have behaved in that fashion," she said. "But of course if there is any cooperation that we can extend to ensure that these allegations are scotched, then we would be prepared to do it." Prime Minister Tony Abbott's conservative government came to power last September partly because of its tough position on asylum seekers. It maintains offshore detention centers in the impoverished nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru that hold thousands of asylum seekers. The number of refugees reaching Australia pales in comparison with other countries, but it is a polarizing political issue that also stokes tension with Indonesia. Relations between the countries have been prickly over Abbott's pledges to break the business of people traffickers operating from Indonesian ports. Ties hit a 13-year low late last year after media reports that Australia had tapped the phones of top Indonesians, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife. Australia apologized to Indonesia last week for naval breaches of its territory as part of Canberra's policy of stopping boats carrying would-be asylum seekers. Abbott, in the Swiss resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum, said on Tuesday that Australia stood by its policies. "For us, stopping the boats is a matter of sovereignty and President Yudhoyono, of all people, ought to understand, does understand, just how seriously countries take their sovereignty," Abbott told reporters. "So we will continue to do what we are entitled to do to secure our borders." Those comments prompted an angry Indonesian response. "The government of Australia under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Abbott also should understand the meaning of Indonesian sovereignty, which has been violated by the Australian navy," Djoko Suyanto, coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said in a statement. The incident comes as US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, in its 700-page annual World Report, issued a blistering assessment of Australia's asylum seeker policy. "Successive governments have prioritized domestic politics over Australia's international legal obligations to protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees," it said. Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta and David Brunnstrom in Washington. The post Australia Rejects Claims That Navy Mistreated Asylum Seekers appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Journalist Group Uncovers Chinese Millions in Overseas Trusts Posted: 22 Jan 2014 09:59 PM PST  A police officer stands guard near the Great Hall of the People, the venue of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, before the closing ceremony, in Beijing. (Photo: Reuters) The close relatives of some of China's most powerful men and women including President Xi Jinping and former Premier Wen Jiabao have maintained secretive accounts in offshore tax havens, with the connivance of some of the West's biggest accounting firms and banks, according to an explosive study by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The account details appear in a vast trove of 2.5 million leaked documents made available to the consortium, a network of 160 journalists in more than 60 countries. The report, which is too comprehensive for Asia Sentinel to print all the details, can be found online here. It shows that Xi's campaign to clean out corruption, which so far has netted hundreds of relatively low-ranking cadres with a few important figures, hardly begins to scratch the surface of illegal wealth fleeing the country. The records show that relatives of at least five current or former Politburo members have incorporated companies in the Cook Islands or British Virgin Islands. Nearly 22,000 offshore clients were found to have addresses on the mainland or in Hong Kong. The records also include incorporations by relatives of Deng Xiaoping, former Premier Li Peng, and former President Hu Jintao. More than 50 reporting partners from Europe, North American and Asia have been sifting through the documents since last April. They put names and faces to reports that an estimated US$1 trillion to US$3 trillion has leaked out of China in illegal capital flight over the past decade. How much of the funds deposited in the British Virgin Islands, Samoa and other offshore havens is illegal isn't clear, the report notes. But the revelations provide an embarrassing counterpoint to efforts over the past month to polish up the image of top Communist cadres, especially former premier Wen. The files include specific details of a real estate company co-owned by Xi's brother-in-law and British Virgin Islands companies set up by Wen's son and also by his son-in-law, making his protestations sound thin that he knew nothing about their wealth. The files show that at least 15 of the country's richest members of the National People's Congress and executives of state-owned companies are allegedly entangled in scandal. The Chinese government on Wednesday condemned the report as illogical and having ulterior motives, as the government blocked websites and censored mention of the story online. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, asked about the report, said he did "not know details of the situation." "But from the point of view of a reader, the logic in the relevant articles is hard for people to believe. This cannot but make people think there is an intent behind it," he told a daily news briefing. Asked whether China would investigate these reports and approach the tax havens for details, Qin said: "Those who are clean are clean, and those who are dirty are dirty." He did not elaborate. The websites of the Guardian, El Pais, Global Mail and Le Monde, which all carried the report, were inaccessible in China. The ICIJ files are also an embarrassment for the international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as well as the Swiss bank UBS and other Western banks and accounting firms, which appear to have played a key role in helping Chinese clients set up the overseas accounts. For instance, the report notes, it was Credit Suisse that helped Wen Jiabao's son create his BVI company while his father was leading the country. The files come from two offshore firms—Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and the BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited—that help clients create offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts, according to the report. Until now, the details on China and Hong Kong had not been disclosed. "As the country has moved from an insular communist system to a socialist/capitalist hybrid, China has become a leading market for offshore havens that peddle secrecy, tax shelters and streamlined international deal making," the report notes. "Every corner of China's economy, from oil to green energy and from mining to arms trading, appears in the ICIJ data." The growing onshore and offshore wealth of China's elites "may not be strictly illegal," but it is often tied to "conflict of interest and covert use of government power," said Minxin Pei, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. "If there is real transparency, then the Chinese people will have a much better idea of how corrupt the system is [and] how much wealth has been amassed by government officials through illegal means." As the report notes, exposure of top level corruption is extremely sensitive. Late last year the government for months delayed visas for The New York Times and the Bloomberg business news service before finally granting them. Both the Times and Bloomberg had written prize-winning accounts of the wealth enjoyed by Xi and Wen's relatives although Bloomberg later capitulated and ordered its journalists to ease up on reporting on Chinese graft. Bloomberg journalist Michael Forsythe was suspended and fired after it was revealed that he was one of the reporters who spoke to The New York Times about the news service's killing a story he had been working on for about a year. Also, Paul Mooney, who had reported critically on China for the South China Morning Post, was denied a visa after he had moved to Reuters. In November, the report noted a mainland Chinese news organization that was working with ICIJ to analyze the offshore data withdrew from the reporting partnership, explaining that authorities had warned it not to publish anything about the material. ICIJ is keeping the identity of the news outlet confidential to protect journalists from government retaliation. Other partners in the investigation include the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, the Taiwanese magazine CommonWealth and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Along with the China and Hong Kong names, ICIJ's files also include the names of roughly 16,000 offshore clients from Taiwan. ICIJ will continue to publish stories with its partners in the next few days and will release the Greater China names on its Offshore Leaks Database on Thursday, the report noted. Additional reporting from Reuters. The post Journalist Group Uncovers Chinese Millions in Overseas Trusts appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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