New | Leak reveals China Cosco discipline chief’s despair over corruption, nepotism and failure to make profit

Leaked minutes of a meeting reveal China Cosco’s new discipline inspection head pointing out corruption and nepotism in the country’s largest shipping company.

The leak comes just before a possible announcement of a merger between China Cosco and rival China Shipping.

The minutes of the closed-door meeting  were reported by Beijing Daily’s official Wechat account and reproduced by  news outlets at the weekend. Media websites and social networks deleted the minutes soon after.

China Cosco’s authorised representative, Liang Hong, said she  could not authenticate the meeting.

According to the minutes, Xu Aisheng, China Cosco’s newly appointed discipline inspection head, said at the meeting that high rents of ships and other major investment mistakes had caused huge losses for the state-owned shipping operator,  and made it party to illegal activities.

“We are asking all units for accountability,” Xu is shown as saying.

Xu said the group had used up to 20,000 freight brokers, 56 of whom were prohibited by regulation, including some related to the secretary of the group’s party committee and the sister of a party committee leader’s key aide.