It’s not clear that the son of Chinese President Hu Jintao has any direct involvement in separate African and European investigations into allegations of wrongdoing at a company he used to run. But one thing that is clear is that for Chinese Internet censors, this story about as sensitive as it gets.
Hu Haifeng’s former company, Nuctech Co., is under scrutiny from anti-corruption officials in Namibia investigating a deal in which the local government purchased cargo scanners from Nuctech. Investigators say he isn’t a suspect. The European Union is investigating whether Nuctech engaged in unfair trade in its sales of X-ray scanners, following a complaint it was selling the products at abnormally low prices. It isn’t clear when the younger Mr. Hu left his position at Nuctech. He’s now a senior official at its parent company.
The cases, which don’t appear related, are extremely sensitive in China, where relatives of top leaders keep a very low profile and where officials fear that any link to corruption in a top leader’s family could lead trigger widespread public anger.
So it’s not surprising that censors have been scrubbing the Web of any trace of the story in China.
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