Exposé reveals ascent to riches by 'Immortals' heirs

Study shows how descendants of eight party founding fathers are multibillion-dollar players at the forefront of country's 'red aristocracy'

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Chen Yuan, of China Development Bank. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:00am, 28 Dec 2012Updated: 10:50am, 28 Dec 2012

An exposé yesterday of the huge business interests and personal assets of the descendants of eight dead Communist Party veterans offers a detailed look at one part of China's elite and how its members benefited from the country's economic boom.

Bloomberg News released a package of articles and info-graphics that dissects the scale and origins of China's "red aristocracy", tracing the fortunes of 103 people - the so-called Eight Immortals' direct descendants and their spouses.

But government curbs on news websites ensured the reports did not spark online discussions on the mainland.

The Eight Immortals - Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Yang Shangkun, Wang Zhen, Bo Yibo, Li Xiannian, Peng Zhen and Song Renqiong - were founding fathers of Communist China who later orchestrated its opening up to the world in 1978.

In the 1980s, their descendants were chosen to run the new state-owned conglomerates. In the 1990s, they tapped into real estate and the mainland's growing hunger for coal and steel.

Today they are players in private equity amid China's integration into the global economy.

Twenty-six of the heirs ran or held top positions in state-owned companies that dominate the economy. Three children alone - Wang's son, Wang Jun , Deng's son-in-law He Ping and Chen Yuan , the son of Mao Zedong's economic tsar - headed or still run state-owned firms with combined assets of about US$1.6 trillion last year. That is equivalent to more than a fifth of the mainland's annual economic output.