OpinionTime to come clean on family wealth

In April last year, veteran Hong Kong columnist Ng Hong-mun revealed that he had held a 90-minute meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing where they talked about political reforms and the upcoming chief executive election in Hong Kong. Ng, a former local deputy to the National People's Congress, said Wen invited him because of his "inspiring in-depth analysis" on issues.

What was intriguing about the meeting was that Ng released two photos, apparently with Wen's consent - one showing him sitting with Wen and his wife Zhang Peili. Until then, Wen had never been seen with his wife at any public event since he became premier in 2003, in sharp contrast to his predecessors, including Zhu Rongji and Li Peng, who often took their wives on overseas visits or to public functions.

Some analysts speculated that Wen deliberately tried to protect his public image of being a "people's premier" because of widespread rumours of his wife's deep involvement in the jewellery business on the mainland.

But what was more interesting about Ng's meeting and publication of the photos was what he did not reveal at the time.

Shortly after The New York Times published an explosive exposé in October this year about Wen's family wealth - valued at US$2.7 billion - Ng published an article defending Wen, recalling that as he was saying goodbye at the meeting, Wen handed him a bag of clippings of reports about allegations against his family, including his wife and his son, Winston Wen Yunsong. Now this is a telling revelation.

Wen gave Ng the materials, apparently aware that he would write about the meeting. Was Wen sending a cryptic message to Ng that he should publicly broach the sensitive issue? According to Ng, Wen did not ask him to do anything about it.

With the benefit of hindsight, it reflects Wen's keen awareness of and concern over growing allegations against his family.