Ex-journalist to take China Resources 'corruption' files to Hong Kong investigators

An independent mainland investigator with ambitious plans to topple the chairman of one of the country’s largest state-owned conglomerates with corruption charges has announced he would visit Hong Kong’s top anti-graft bodies on Monday and turn over evidence on alleged mismanagement, negligence and corrupt activities involving dozens of senior corporate executives.

Li Jianjun, 36, a chain-smoking former investigative reporter from the coal-rich province of Shanxi, held court in his hotel room in Hong Kong at the weekend as journalists continually rang his doorbell seeking interviews. Stacked on the floor of his bathroom and strewn on his hotel bed were large hardback folders filled with freshly printed documents.

“Photograph anything you want,” said Li, lighting up another cigarette and gesturing at the documents. “These will all go to the ICAC and Commercial Crime Bureau,” he said, referring to the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Hong Kong police unit dealing with commercial crimes.

An ICAC press officer who declined to give his name said on Saturday that the commission could not comment on individual cases, but said Li was welcome to visit ICAC’s 24-hour report centre in North Point any time.

For more than four months, Li had been airing accusations via the internet against Song Lin, 50, the chairman of China Resources (Holdings), a state conglomerate that employs almost half a million people and has estimated assets of nearly US$120 billion. The group was ranked No 187 on the Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest companies this year.

Li has said Song was responsible for pushing through suspicious deals in which China Resources Power, one of the group’s Hong Kong-listed subsidiaries, purchased several coal mines in Shanxi for more than 10 billion yuan (HK$12.6 billion), times more than the mines’ real value.