China has called the investigation into the archives of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca "groundless allegations" and has taken steps to limit coverage of them. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said this at a briefing, Reuters reports .

“We will not comment on these baseless accusations,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.

Thus, Lei answered a question from journalists about whether Beijing would investigate the facts about offshore companies associated with relatives of senior management, which were mentioned in the Panama Papers.

An investigation into offshore companies by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), based on documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, was published on April 3. It, in particular, includes offshore companies associated with the families of Xi Jinping and other influential representatives of the current and former leadership of the country.

According to Reuters , Chinese state media are avoiding coverage of the leaked documents. Queries with the word “Panama” in Chinese search engines bring up reports in Chinese media on this topic, but many links turn out to be non-working or open only news about accusations against athletes, the agency notes.

In addition, when searching for the Panama Papers in Chinese, a warning appears that the results “may be contrary to relevant laws and regulations and therefore will not be shown.” China's internet regulator did not respond to the agency's request for comment.

At the end of 2012, when a new generation of leaders led by Xi Jinping came to power in China, a large-scale anti-corruption campaign began in the country. Currently, more than a hundred high-ranking Chinese officials have been convicted of corruption crimes.

China calls investigation data on offshore companies “groundless accusations”