From Los Angeles Times:
Does she own jade jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or doesn’t she? Only her propaganda team knows for sure.
The mysterious jewelry tale about Zhang Beili, wife of the Chinese premier, surfaced last month when two Taiwanese television stations ran a story about her interest in bling.
In the segments, Taiwanese jewelry dealer Yu Chong-da gushes over how Premier Wen Jiabao’s wife bought some exquisite pieces from him at a Beijing trade show in 2006, including a pair of jade earrings worth about $275,000. A second jeweler, Chiou Wei-jung, adds that Zhang also has a taste for emeralds and Taiwanese coral.
Taiwan television is not available in China, but the story was quickly picked up by Duowei, a Chinese-language website based in New York. China blocks sensitive Internet reports, but savvy Chinese web users are able to get around the censors. [Full Text]
