CHINA’S State-owned media have drawn direct connection between the business empire of Zhou Bin and the power held by his father, a former senior leader.

    An article on news portal Sohu.com said late in February that Zhou Bin’s empire had been built on “the name of the father.”

    “This was a fortune destined from birth. The family name Zhou gave the son numerous advantages during the first half of his life, but may also make him a prisoner in the latter half,” said the article, which was compiled from reports by various domestic news outlets.

    “Zhou Bin is tall, like his father. He was born when his father worked on the Liaohe oilfield [in the Northeast of China] and this destined him to be closely connected to the oil and energy sector,” the article said.

    Zhou Bin was born in 1972 while his father worked as a technician and party head at the Liaohe oilfield. The father rose through the ranks to eventually gain a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee, before his retirement in November 2012.

    The younger Zhou is accused of using his father’s influence to build a secret but massive business empire with interests in oil, hydropower, real estate and other sectors, the article said. He was formally detained in December.

    People.com.cn, a website affiliated with People’s Daily, reran the article. The China Youth Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Youth League, also ran a commentary questioning how the vested interests behind Zhou Bin were formed.

    “Zhou Bin used his powerful government resources to obtain land he resold for a hefty profit. He could make corrupt deals because of the advantages he enjoyed, which were secured by powerful politicians intervening in business,” it said.

    In addition to various reports, fresh details have emerged about the business dealings of Zhou, saying that Zhou also had a share in Chinese entertainment industry.

    Zhou and his wife built an entertainment production company that may have enjoyed preferential treatment from the State broadcaster CCTV, insiders told the Sunday Morning Post.

    Several official media outlets reported last week that Zhou, 42, had built a business empire from dealings with the oil industry, riding on his father’s coattails. As well as being one of the nation’s most powerful leaders, the father is alleged to have controlled the oil industry.

    But the involvement of Zhou and his Chinese-American wife Huang Wan, 43, in the film and television industry is not widely known. Both are in detention and under investigation for corruption.

    According to a source on condition of anonymity, the couple’s interest in the field began over dinner with friends in 2005 at a restaurant near their Beijing home.

    Zhou mentioned casually that his wife had been deeply moved by a true story on CCTV about a lawyer who donated a kidney to his sick mother, said the source, who was at the dinner.

    Huang saw the potential for a television drama series based on the story and how it could project a positive public message, this source said, adding: “Huang was very excited about her idea, and Zhou was supportive.”

    Two years later, a drama titled “Warmth,” based on the lawyer’s story, aired during prime time on CCTV’s flagship channel.

    Records show the production company behind the 22-episode series was Boshang Culture and Communication, founded under the name of Zhan Minli, Huang’s mother.

    Huang was listed as “chief planner” of the drama, while Wu Bing, a tycoon who was detained in August over his business ties with the Zhou family, was credited as “general counsel.”

    When the former senior leader retired in 2012, he was one of the most powerful men in China.

    Dozens of 71-year-old former leader’s subordinates have been investigated for their dealings, mostly in his former power base of Sichuan Province, the domestic security apparatus and the oil industry. Those detained include Li Dongsheng, a former deputy publicity minister who served as deputy public security minister.

    It is not known if the former leader or Li helped Zhou and Huang’s entertainment business, but most of their productions were broadcast after the father became minister of public security in 2002.

    Five years later, when the father was the nation’s security tsar, Boshang produced several series that praised the work of police and lawyers.

    In May 2008, the premiere of patriotic prime-time CCTV drama Police Stories, produced by the same company in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Security, was attended by dozens of high-profile guests including Cai Anji, a former director of the political department of the Ministry of Public Security.

    In 2011, Boshang changed its name and ownership was transferred to Chen Gang, a former business associate of Zhou, and actress Mei Ting.

    Zhou Bin has been formally detained since December, facing possible bribery allegations, and is allegedly involved in illegal dealings in Sichuan Province and the oil industry, both of which his father had built up as powerbases.

    This week, Lu Xinhua, a spokesman for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, stressed that “anyone who violates the party’s discipline and the state law will be seriously investigated and punished.” He was responding to a question by the South China Morning Post on whether the former senior leader was being investigated.

    Analysts have said with the former leader’s son and former prosteges put under investigation, the State graft-busters are closing in on him in a corruption scandal that could make him the highest ranking official ensnared for corruption since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

    (SD-Agencies)

    Family mansion

    AERIAL footage of a large home owned by the family of the former senior leader in Jiangsu Province has offered a glimpse of their wealth.

    The two-minute video, taken by a camera attached to a small drone helicopter, was uploaded Monday night by Internet giant Tencent’s web portal, qq.com.

    It identified the sprawling home as being owned by Zhou Bin. It showed a gated two-storey home with high white walls and surrounded by a classical Chinese garden. It is located in the village of Xiqiantou.

    The home has a black tiled roof and architecture of a style seen south of the Yangtze River.

    According to an article posted with the video, the former senior leader’s two younger brothers used to live there. It was constructed in 2010 on the site of the old house of the family, which was torn down to make way for the new structure, Caixin Media said.

    Earlier, an investigative report by the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post cited residents as saying that they used to see officials and businessmen visiting the building, but that the stream of visitors had recently dried up. They said surveillance cameras had also been installed around the home.

    The Oriental Morning Post’s report said villagers last saw the senior leader in person last April. He told them: “This might be the last time I visit you.”

    The report, which led with a photo of the home, went viral on mobile-phone messaging platform WeChat.

    (SD-Agencies)