China Resources ‘rumors’ a setup

The Hong Kong-based State-owned conglomerate at the center of a real-name tip-off confirmed to the Global Times Wednesday that it has sent all its employees an e-mail saying the whole thing was orchestrated behind the scenes and aimed at tarnishing the company's image.

The Monday e-mail by China Resources (Holdings) was sent five days after Wang Wenzhi, a reporter with the Economic Information Daily newspaper under the Xinhua News Agency, alleged on his Sina Weibo that Song Lin, the company's chairman, and other senior executives were involved in a fraudulent acquisition in 2010.

Wang said the acquisition was made by a subsidiary of the company, which intentionally overpaid for the purchase of a Shanxi-based coal company. This resulted in billions of yuan of losses in State-owned assets.

The letter sent by the company to the Global Times on Wednesday said the rumors have hurt the company's image, causing huge economic losses and having serious political influences.

"All signs show that the whistle-blowing was orchestrated carefully through bribing online public relations employees. It aims to attract public attention and puts pressure on the company to force it to cancel the transaction and pursue whomever has gained benefits from this," it said.

The letter also called on all employees to be confident and not disturbed by "rumors."

Wang responded on his Weibo Wednesday saying that the letter shows that Song had started to defame him and divert the public attention away from the allegations.

"I've been forthright and I welcome the company to find the orchestrator behind me. The transaction is dubious, leading to billions of yuan of losses in State-owned assets. It's better to just cancel it to safeguard the benefits of the country and China Resources," Wang said.

Kevin Liang, an employee of the company's brand and communications department, told the Global Times Wednesday that similar rumors started to surface in March. Liang refused to comment on the letter.

"To fight against the rumors, we have invited the National Audit Office (NAO) to conduct a thorough audit since May, which is fair to the company," Liang said, adding that he is not clear about the progress and this has nothing to do with the whistle-blowing this time.

The NAO could not be reached by the Global Times as of late Wednesday.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the country's watchdog of State-owned enterprises, told Xinhua on Friday that China Resources is being audited and the commission will act in accordance with the auditing results.

The commission also vowed to severely punish and hold those who are involved accountable according to law, should any illegality and irregularities be spotted.