Leading liberal Hu Deping fights claims of hidden luxury Beijing home
The eldest son of late party general secretary Hu Yaobang, a key reformist and liberal, has dismissed allegations that he has a hidden luxury home in an upscale Beijing estate, amid further allegations of his other siblings' ties to scandal-hit businesses.
The eldest son of late party general secretary Hu Yaobang, a key reformist and liberal, has dismissed allegations that he has a hidden luxury home in an upscale Beijing estate, amid further allegations of his other siblings' ties to scandal-hit businesses.
In a microblog posted yesterday Hu Deping , who is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, invited his detractors to back up their claims and disclose details of the purported property.
Hu's response followed online reports which suggested that Hu's younger brother Liu Hu was a former deputy general manager and executive board director of China Resources (Holdings). Its chairman Song Lin was accused of corruption by a whistle-blower on Wednesday.
Liu is the second son of Hu Yaobang, who served as Communist Party general secretary from 1982 to 1987, before he was purged for not cracking down on student demonstrations.
Hu's younger sister Li Heng, who adopted her mother's surname, was reported online to have worked as a public affairs executive in 2005 for GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) in China. The Ministry of Public Security recently detained at least four executives of the pharmaceutical giant on corruption charges.
GSK's Beijing office has denied that Li Heng was ever employed by the company.
One leftist commentator said the slew of scandals "made a mockery" of the Hu family's claims they were free of scandal and called on the family to disclose their assets to prove their innocence.
Renmin University political scientist Zhang Ming said many leftists wanted to launch a smear campaign against liberals, including Hu Deping, for promoting democracy and constitutionalism. Ahead of the national congress in November of 2012, Hu called for party reform.
