https://www.scmp.com/rss/235770/feed Zhang Peili, also known as Zhang Beili, is the wife of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. She is a leading authority in the Chinese jewellery industry and former manager of state-owned diamond companies. She was a regulator at the Ministry of Geology, setting industrial standards for the gemstone trade in China. Zhang has reportedly benefited from her family and industry connections. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Enid Tsui Enid Tsui The walls of Tai Kwun’s F Hall Studio have come alive with a 360-degree visual onslaught stitched together by eight projectors. During the 12-minute video loop, viewers are subjected to a thoroughly disorienting montage of first-person footage that shifts abruptly between banal and disturbing. The imagery is a relentless stream of contemporary consciousness: a nondescript city viewed from a hill, jerky footage of people being pushed in wheelchairs at great speed, a cacophony of television news... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3341826/what-does-chinese-video-art-pioneers-disturbing-new-work-hong-kong-mean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3341826/what-does-chinese-video-art-pioneers-disturbing-new-work-hong-kong-mean?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:15:37 +0000 Chinese insurance company Ping An threatened legal action on Monday after a media report linked a key government decision about the company to shareholdings held by relatives of current Premier Wen Jiabao. The New York Times said on Sunday that the chairman of Ping An Insurance wrote personally in 1999 to Wen, who was vice-premier at the time, and met his wife as the government mulled a decision to split up the company. Following the lobbying, it said, the government granted Ping An a waiver... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1091154/chinese-insurer-ping-hits-out-wen-jiabao-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1091154/chinese-insurer-ping-hits-out-wen-jiabao-report?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:26:55 +0000 China on Monday warned its critics they were “doomed to failure” as Beijing confirmed that Premier Wen Jiabao’s family had employed lawyers to help fight The New York Times “There are always some voices in the world who do not want to see China develop and become stronger and they will try any means to smear China and Chinese leaders and try to sow instability in China,” said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei. “Your scheme is doomed to failure,” he added. The official was responding to... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1072550/china-critics-doomed-failure-wen-seeks-lawyers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1072550/china-critics-doomed-failure-wen-seeks-lawyers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:30:19 +0000 Lawyers for Premier Wen Jiabao's family last night hit back at The New York Times for its explosive exposé about their wealth - the first time a top Chinese leader has issued a rebuttal to a foreign media report. Two lawyers released a statement on behalf of Wen's family shortly before 11pm denying, among other things, that the premier's 90-year-old mother ever held a US$120 million investment in Ping An Insurance, a central claim of the Times' report. In fact, the lawyers said, Wen's mother,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1071504/wen-family-hits-back-lies-hidden-fortune?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1071504/wen-family-hits-back-lies-hidden-fortune?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Beijing reacted furiously yesterday to an overseas media report that Premier Wen Jiabao's family had accumulated massive wealth during his time in office. "Some reports smear China and have ulterior motives," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in response to a question about The New York Times report, which said Wen's family controlled at least US$2.7 billion worth of assets. Hong declined to comment on the accuracy of the report. The websites of the English and Chinese editions of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1070749/beijing-denounces-report-wen-familys-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1070749/beijing-denounces-report-wen-familys-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China’s Foreign Ministry hit out at a New York Times report on Friday which claimed that Premier Wen Jiabao’s family had amassed massive wealth during his term in office. “Some reports smear China and have ulterior motives,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in response to a question about the report, which said that Wen’s family controlled assets worth US$2.7 billion dollars from 1992 until this year. The New York Times said on Thursday in a report that the relatives of China’s prime... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1070175/beijing-denounces-nyt-report-wen-family-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1070175/beijing-denounces-nyt-report-wen-family-wealth?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Oct 2012 01:53:00 +0000 A decade is a long time in government in China, but a year is not. Premier Wen Jiabao, giving his 10th and final closing news conference at the end of the National People's Congress this week, spoke of his achievements and what he still hoped to attain in his final 12 months in office before stepping aside for the new leadership. He has done a competent job, but his wish to further his legacy as the 'people's premier' has all but hit a wall. Without political reform, the changes he seeks that... https://www.scmp.com/article/995711/peoples-premier-has-run-out-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995711/peoples-premier-has-run-out-time?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Veteran Hong Kong columnist and former local National People's Congress deputy Ng Hong-mun has had a 90-minute audience with premier Wen Jiabao which political commentators see as Beijing trying to show it is more open to criticism. Ng, whose columns in the Chinese-language Ming Pao have been increasingly critical of the Communist Party, visited Wen's office in Beijing on Saturday for a discussion during which, he said, Wen told him the central government lacked people who were willing to tell... https://www.scmp.com/article/966127/hong-kong-columnist-meets-premier-wen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/966127/hong-kong-columnist-meets-premier-wen?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Nothing is more politically sensitive and riskier on the mainland than publicly speculating about the personal lives and family members of top government and Communist Party leaders. The official media is banned from carrying anything except for officially sanctioned bits of information and offenders risk the peril of heavy official retribution. But fewer things arouse more curiosity among mainlanders - and in most cases, send their blood boiling - than such speculation. This is largely because... https://www.scmp.com/article/616230/all-glitters-bad-news-wen-watchers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/616230/all-glitters-bad-news-wen-watchers?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Premier Wen Jiabao is the new poster boy of Chinese politics. The least wooden of the otherwise universally poker-faced top communist leaders, the poetry-loving, baseball-tossing premier has successfully projected a populist public persona that has won him fans on the mainland and abroad. Compared to his mysterious boss, Hu Jintao , anecdotes about this so-called 'man of the people' are legion. Mainland journalists are fond of telling tales of him breaking off from inspection tours... https://www.scmp.com/article/612623/wen-jiabao-populist-trapped-rigid-political-system?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/612623/wen-jiabao-populist-trapped-rigid-political-system?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:00:00 +0000