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Pastimes : All Clowns Must Be Destroyed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IceShark who wrote (32848)	5/12/2000 10:05:00 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42523

Where's the Plunge Protection Team when ya really need 'em? Does anyone know if the Chinese were liquidating dollars today in the FOREX markets? nytimes.com May 12, 2000 Top China Official Is Dead After Fall From Window By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL BEIJING, May 12 -- China's top foreign exchange regulator died on Wednesday, Chinese officials confirmed today, after falling from a seventh-floor hospital window. Hong Kong newspapers called the death of Li Fuxiang, 47, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, a suicide, prompted either by his failing health or a corruption investigation centering on Mr. Li's predecessor at the administration. Mr. Li himself was widely respected and not known to be involved in any improprieties. He had been in the hospital in Beijing for several days, the Hong Kong papers said, variously reporting that he suffered from diabetes, heart disease or depression. But almost as astonishing as the stories surrounding Mr. Li's death was the extraordinary back door through which the news first emerged: An anonymous posting in a chatroom on a popular Chinese website. Under the heading "Especially Big News" it popped up at 10:27 Thursday night on Sina.com and read: "Director of State Administration of Foreign Exchange Li Fuxiang committed suicide on May 10. Reason for incident is under investigation. Believe there is astonishing background." It is the latest -- and most stunning -- example of how Chinese are getting news from the Internet that their tightly controlled state press in unwilling to print. But the contradictory versions of Mr. Li's demise, also show how quickly rumors can multiply in a country where there is little hard information and no independent press to investigate them. The government was clearly not prepared to release the news today, and confusion about the incident reigned for much of the day, as government news offices, when asked about the reports, said they were "looking into" the death which supposedly had occurred two days before. The Foreign Exchange administration said "it was unclear" about what had happened. Chinese economic officials close to the foreign exchange administration, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Mr. Li had died and said that they had been told that the death was a probable suicide. An employee in the morgue of the Chinese Army's Number 304 Hospital told The Associated Press that a patient in a ward reserved for senior officials had fallen to his death on Wednesday night, but could not say if it was Mr. Li. An official at the hospital's press office, who would not give his name, said he would not comment on the report but added angrily, "If he committed suicide or didn't, what's it to you?" All media outlets in China are owned and tightly controlled by the state, which restricts even privately owned Chinese websites to reprinting stories from the state press in its news sections. But the government has had a much tougher time figuring out how to effectively regulate the freewheeling discussions that occur regularly in chat rooms. Although all comments are viewed by a web site editor, who deletes entries deemed too offensive to the state, there is a large gray area where that decision is highly subjective. Commercial web sites know that their popularity depends on providing racy items and maintaining open discussion. And chat room participants complain vigorously if their comments are deleted. Reached this afternoon, a spokesman for Sina.com said he was unaware of the posting, noting only that "all messages are put there by others." If, in fact, Mr. Li's death turns out to be a suicide and if that suicide is related to corruption, it could have a profound effect on China's finance world. Mr. Lis' predecessor, Zhu Xiaohua, is being investigated in connection with corruption at the huge and hugely profitable China Everbright Group in Hong Kong, which is controlled by China's State Council, Hong Kong newspapers reported today. If that corruption extends into the State Administration of Foreign Exchange -- which controls billions of dollars of precious foreign currency -- it would be a great embarrassment to the Chinese government, which is currently in the midst of an aggressive anti-corruption campaign.