Fortunes of China's Elite Revealed

When a man gets power, even his chickens and dogs rise to heaven. The Chinese proverb is not one Xi Jinping, head of China's Communist Party and next in line to be the country's president, would likely use. In a 2004 anti-graft conference call, Xi warned officials to "Rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain." Still, using public and business records, interviews with acquaintances and Hong Kong and Chinese identity-card numbers, Bloomberg reporters traced millions of dollars in assets that Xi's extended family accumulated during his rise to power.

No assets were linked to Xi and his immediate family, and there's no indication Xi intervened to advance his relatives' business transactions, or of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family. Soon after the article appeared, the Bloomberg.com web site became inaccessible in China.