A group of Republican lawmakers is calling on Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard to release a 14-month-overdue report on corruption and wealth among Chinese Communist Party (CCP) elites, according to a letter recently obtained by The Epoch Times.
“Congress provided the [Intelligence Community] with a year to execute this directive,” Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said in the letter to Gabbard dated Feb. 26.
“Fourteen months removed from the latest possible due date for this report, Congress is still waiting for a work product that will undoubtedly have critical implications for our legislative work.”
The lawmakers pointed out that while reporting to Congress is standard practice, this report “will carry far greater implications.”
“It will probably highlight that General Secretary Xi Jinping and his top cadres are not ‘scrapping by’ on legally prescribed nominal salaries—indeed, they are more than likely bona fide billionaires,” they said.
The letter cites previous revelations about CCP elites’ financial holdings, including a Bloomberg article detailing the investments of Xi’s family. That 2012 report claims that Xi’s family owned $376 million in assets, an 18 percent stake in a rare earth minerals company worth $1.73 billion, and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded tech company.
Citing additional media sources, the lawmakers also highlighted the wealth amassed by the family of former Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. His mother, referred to as Ms. Yang in the letter, reportedly had a $120 million stake in a major financial institution—despite that she worked solely as a schoolteacher during Mao Zedong’s economically strained rule.
“All these examples strongly suggest a more entrenched corruption underpinning the CCP’s governing structure,” the letter reads.
The lawmakers contrasted the CCP officials’ vast wealth with widespread poverty in China, where 600 million people—nearly half the population—live on less than $5 per day.
“The juxtaposition between the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by the PRC’s leadership and the more than 1.4 billion people suffering under the CCP’s tyrannical rule would shatter any pretense that Mr. Xi and his minions were ever interested in combatting corruption,” the letter reads.
The lawmakers have requested that Gabbard respond by March 12 regarding the progress in compiling an intelligence report.
The Epoch Times reached out to Gabbard’s office for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
