Panama Papers: Massive Tax Haven Document Leak Exposes Corruption and Crime on Global Scale

A massive leak of millions of documents has revealed that heads of state, criminals and celebrities conduct and sometimes conceal their business activities in tax havens. The leak exposes holdings in shadowy companies that are owned by 11 past and present heads of state, and reveals how partners of Russian President Vladimir Putin clandestinely transferred no less than $2 billion through banks and companies registered in tax shelters.

The source of the leaked documents is a very powerful yet not very well-known law firm called Mossack Fonseca. This firm has branches in Hong Kong, Miami, Zurich and more than 35 other locations around the world, among them Israel. The documents reveal many Israeli connections and disclose that business people with Israeli citizenship as well as Israeli banks and companies have used the law firm to register companies in tax havens around the world.

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.712456

 

 

Hong Kong’s SCMP newspaper website blocked in China

The website of the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper being bought by Internet giant Alibaba, has become inaccessible in China during a series of high-level government meetings in Beijing.

Attempts by AFP in China on Friday to open the newspaper’s English and Chinese-language websites returned only error messages saying that the pages could not be displayed.

The scmp.com website was blocked starting on March 3, according to the security website GreatFire.org, which monitors online censorship in China.

China’s Communist Party oversees a vast censorship system — dubbed the Great Firewall — that aggressively blocks sites or snuffs out Internet and TV content and commentary on topics considered sensitive, such as Beijing’s human rights record and criticisms of the government.

Popular social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter are inaccessible in the country, as is Youtube.

Several Western news organisations have accused China of blocking access to their websites in the past, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Reuters.

http://news.yahoo.com/hong-kongs-scmp-newspaper-website-blocked-china-104702769.html;_ylt=AwrC1DEt3uJWcREA22LQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBydDI5cXVuBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM2BHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg–

HONG KONG’S SCMP NEWSPAPER WEBSITE BLOCKED IN CHINA

Attempts by AFP in China on Friday to open the newspaper’s English and Chinese-language websites returned only error messages saying that the pages could not be displayed.

The scmp.com website was blocked starting on March 3, according to the security website GreatFire.org, which monitors online censorship in China.

http://www.infowars.com/hong-kongs-scmp-newspaper-website-blocked-in-china/

Missing’ bookseller back in Hong Kong: Government

One of five “missing” Hong Kong booksellers who was detained on the mainland returned to the city Friday and met police, the government said, in a case that has provoked fears of increasing Chinese interference in the semi-autonomous region.

Lui Por, who has been missing since October, was among three of the booksellers who Hong Kong police said earlier this week would be released on bail.

“Police met with Lui Por, who returned to Hong Kong from the mainland, this morning,” a brief government statement released late Friday said.

“Lui requested to have his missing persons case closed and expressed that there was no need for assistance from the Hong Kong government or police,” it said, adding he refused to provide any more information.

Hong Kong police had said that Lui and his counterparts Cheung Chi Ping and Lam Wing Kee, would all be released on bail. However, police on Friday were not able to immediately provide information about Lam and Cheung when contacted by AFP.

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/missing-bookseller-back-hong-kong-government

Two missing Hong Kong booksellers return from China

Two of five missing booksellers believed to have been held in China have returned to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong police said Sunday.

Cheung Chi Ping requested the police to cancel his missing persons case, two days after his fellow bookseller Lui Por returned to Hong Kong also asking police to close his missing persons case.

Both men requested no further help from the government or police and “refused to disclose other details,” according to police statements.

All five men were involved with publisher Mighty Current and its shop Causeway Bay Books, which sold gossipy titles about China’s elite.

The disappearance of the booksellers sparked outrage in Hong Kong and internationally over fears they were taken against their will in December by Beijing authorities. Thousands of people demonstrated in Hong Kong to demand their return.

Hong Kong authorities have said China was holding some of the men. China has repeatedly said its officials wouldn’t do anything illegal.

Lui Por and associates Cheung Chi-ping, Lam Wing-kee and Gui Minhai appeared on television Sunday admitting to “illegal book trading” in China.

Gui Minhai, the owner of Hong Kong publisher Mighty Current, ordered thousands of “unauthorized” books sent to mainland China, the other men said.

http://www.kpax.com/story/31390700/one-missing-hong-kong-bookseller-returns-from-china

China’s Li predicts ‘difficult battle’ for growth

While warning that China faced “more and tougher problems,” including weak export demand, Li said he was confident that stable growth could be maintained.

The prime minister, who is the country’s top economic official, announced a growth target of 6.5 to 7 percent – down on last year’s aim of “about 7 percent.”

“The larger the economy grows, the greater the difficulty of achieving growth,” Li told delegates at the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s nominal parliament.

Li’s speech at the Great Hall of the People, lasting nearly two hours, was punctuated by polite choreographed applause. The assembly of almost 3,000 delegates routinely endorses ruling Communist party plans in near unanimous votes.

“China will face more and tougher problems and challenges in its development this year, so we must be fully prepared to fight a difficult battle,” said Li in his budget report, adding that the government would increase projected spending to allow a fiscal deficit of 3 percent.

http://www.dw.com/en/chinas-li-predicts-difficult-battle-for-growth/a-19096112

Russia wants free trade zone with Hong Kong

The EEU is a trade bloc established in 2015 on the basis of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. It currently has five members: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, while Tajikistan is a prospective member.

Western sanctions have encouraged Russia to work more actively with Asian partners. In May last year, the EEU and Vietnam signed a free trade zone agreement. It became the first free trade zone between the trade bloc and a third party. According to the documents prepared for the signing ceremony, the free trade zone is going to save exporters from the EEU about $40-60 million in the first year of operation.

https://www.rt.com/business/329293-russia-hong-kong-trade-eeu/

Russia wants free trade zone with Hong Kong https://t.co/0aQn98TRAG pic.twitter.com/KPFuH5jM5t

— RT (@RT_com) January 18, 2016

Hong Kong politicians call for Beijing to explain booksellers’ ‘abductions’

Politicians in Hong Kong are demanding answers from Beijing over the mysterious disappearance of a group of booksellers who specialised in tabloid-style exposés about China’s communist leaders.

Five men linked to Sage Communications – a Hong Kong publisher known for its salacious tomes on the private lives of mainland politicians – have apparently been abducted since October, in what some suspect is a Beijing-backed bid to silence the company.

The missing include Gui Minhai, the company’s 51-year-old owner, who vanished from his beachfront apartment in Thailand on 17 October, and three employees who were last seen at around the same time in the Chinese cities of Dongguan and Shenzhen.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/03/hong-kong-politicians-call-beijing-comment-lee-po-editor-abduction