China orders its senior officials to dump their foreign assets

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has reportedly issued a decree for the party’s senior officials strongly advising them to refrain from buying any foreign holdings.

In a bid to insulate China‘s top officials from the sanctions, like those slapped by the West on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine, the new policy will block promotions for CCP elites who have significant assets abroad.

The restriction will apply not only to assets held directly and indirectly by high party functionaries themselves, but also those owned by their spouses and children.

The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Organization Department is said to have issued the new investment restriction in an internal notice in March, weeks after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The USA and its allies have imposed severe sanctions to punish and isolate Russia over its war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine. Some of the sanctions have directly targeted individuals, including corrupt Kremlin officials and wealthy ‘businessmen.’

According to new directive, Chinese ministerial-level party leaders will no longer be permitted to own such foreign assets as real estate and stocks.

Senior Chinese party officials will also be banned from owning ‘non-essential’ accounts in foreign banks. While an official’s college-age child would be able to own and use an account in a local bank while attending a college overseas, he or she wouldn’t be permitted to stockpile cash in Luxemburg or Monaco as a safe haven.

China’s President Xi Jinping has previously expressed his displeasure with graft and showy displays of wealth by Communist Party officials. Leaked records from 2014, alleged that close relatives of party elites, including the son of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and a brother-in-law of Xi, had allegedly set up overseas corporations to hide assets.