Top Chinese leaders and their family members have been implicated in the Panama Papers as owners of various anonymous and inactive offshore companies, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced.

Part of the 11.5 million documents leaked from a law firm in Panama allegedly shows that the brother-in-law of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Deng Jiagui, controls several offshore companies.

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According to ICIJ, the papers also shows that Li Xiaolin, the daughter China's former premier Li Peng, owns several offshore companies which were set up by the Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca.

Family members

The Panama Papers reportedly also listed family members of  two high-ranking officials of the communist party and relatives of four more high-level Chinese government leaders who maintain secretive offshore holdings.

The ICIJ has released two new names that appear in the documents; the son-in-law of Chinese Vice premier Zhang Gaoli and the daughter-in-law of Liu Yunshan, China's information chief.

More names allegedly appear in the Panama Papers implicating relatives of former and current government officials who have allegedly stashed their wealth in offshore companies.

Chinese personalities

According to the papers, Jasmine Li Zidan, granddaughter of Jia Qinglin, the former member of China's Standing Committee, has standing offshore holdings in a company named Harvest Sun Trading, the ICIJ revealed.

The Panama Papers also named other Chinese personalities who have offshore holdings, including the brother of Zeng Qinghong, China's ex-vice president; grandson-in-law of Mao Zedong, China's leader for almost three decades; and son of Hu Yaobang, former leader of the communist party.

Groundless

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei branded the revelations as 'groundless' and refused to give any more comments.

Although the leaked documents did not categorically disclose any illegal activity by the Chinese leaders and their relatives, China is sensitive about graft in the wake of President Xi Jinping's relentless anti-corruption campaign that has led to the arrest and prosecution of several corrupt officials.

The Panama Papers refers to a cache of 11.5 million documents which are said to contain potentially illegal activities of high-profile leaders and global personalities. It was leaked by the Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca, the same firm that allegedly helped the clients set up their inactive offshore companies.

TagsPanama Papers, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Chinese President Xi jinping, Mossack Fonseca, communist party leaders, top level government officials, offshore companies, shell companies