The following censorship instruction, issued to the media by government authorities, has been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
Delete: “Bank of China Denies ‘Youhuitong’ Launders Money.” (July 12, 2014)
查删:中国银行否认“优汇通”洗钱。
CCTV has aired a report accusing Bank of China of using its Youhuitong foreign exchange service to launder money. Didi Kirsten Tatlow at the New York Times reports:
The report on Wednesday accused the state-run bank of money laundering, through its Youhuitong service, which enables wealthy Chinese to convert large amounts of renminbi into foreign currency to emigrate overseas under investment visa programs.
By law, the Chinese may take the equivalent of $50,000 out of the country per year, leaving it something of a mystery as to how so many emigrate through visa programs that may require millions of renminbi converted into foreign currency. [Source]
Bank of China denies these allegations. Meanwhile, several high-level staff at CCTV are under investigation for graft, most recently anchor Rui Chenggang.
CDT collects directives from a variety of sources and checks them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.