January 5, 2008
Shenzhen’s charmingly named Daily Sunshine newspaper leads with a widely reported story on its front page:
17 board members of the state-owned overseas investment company CITIC Pacific, including its chairman Larry Yung (荣智健), were questioned by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). The SFC launched a formal investigation into CITIC Pacific last month after the company predicted a 15.5 billion Hong Kong dollar loss from its currency bets last year.
The son of ‘red capitalist’ Rong Yiren (荣毅仁) who was Vice-President of the PRC from 1993 to 1998, Larry Yung has topped the Forbes list of the richest Chinese several times.
His personal wealth was recently reported having shrunk by 70% from 3 billion US dollars at its peak
Other stories on the Daily Sunshine front page include:
● China Mobile will start issuing its 3G mobile phone numbers in Shenzhen on January 8. The new phone numbers, with their 188 prefix, are touted as the most “auspicious phone number ever”.
● Li Zuopeng (李作鹏), a former PLA general who was sentenced for 17 years in 1981 for his role in what has been officially termed as the “counterrevolutionary coup plotted by the Lin Biao anti-party clique” died yesterday. Li was 95 years old.
- Daily Sunshine (Chinese): CITIC Pacific chairman Rong Zhijian under investigation
- Daily Sunshine (Chinese): Lin Biao’s crony Li Zuopeng passed away