Offshore tax-dodging piece shows anti-Chinese bias: report

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-01-24

China Times said the report placed undue focus on the offshore accounting
practises of Chinese enterprises and individuals. (File photo/China Times)

The latest report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) unfairly focuses on the accounting practices of Chinese tycoons, our sister paper China Times reported on Jan. 24.

The ICIJ's latest report, Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze, claimed that more than 20,000 Chinese and Hong Kong entrepreneurs avoid paying taxes by registering dummy accounts in offshore tax havens.

The report also said that a total of 16,000 Taiwanese companies or individuals have also sought to avoid taxes via the same procedure. China Times speculated that those listed companies or individuals may have invested or launched businesses in mainland China.

The ICIJ is under the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) but China Times questioned the impartiality of both the ICIJ's and CPI's reports, especially those of CPI because investment guru George Soros is one of its major sponsors.

The paper quoted an anonymous ICIJ employee and said that its report conceded that the activities of the companies or individuals cited are totally legal in the global market.

"Some of those who transfer their money to a foreign location to avoid taxes may have been involved in some illegal activities but not these companies or individuals that were cited in the report," the employee said.

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