Anbang, Chinese Company With Global Reach, Faces New Scrutiny
The Anbang Insurance Group, which Mr. Wu controls as president and chief executive, said on Sunday
that it would take legal action against Caixin Media and its editor in chief, Hu Shuli, after Caixin Weekly magazine questioned whether Anbang was as financially robust as the company claimed.
Chinese said that The level of detail that is provided in the article is, I think,
relatively unique for any type of story of a Chinese company in Chinese media,
On its website on Monday, Caixin said the suggestion
that it took on Anbang out of vengefulness was "an attempt at framing with no basis in facts." "We strongly condemn the slander in the Anbang statement and reserve the right to take legal recourse," Caixin said.
But Caixin also said Anbang’s successive injections of capital, which have helped finance these deals, appeared to often involve companies linked to Mr. Wu’s relatives and associates, raising the possibility
that they were not real injections by outside investors.
Anbang issued a statement on Friday that it had sufficient cash flows; it told a Chinese newspaper
that rumors that Mr. Wu was in detention were false; and Mr. Wu gave an interview to another Chinese newspaper, The Beijing News, that also seemed intended to squash the rumors.
According to Anbang, Caixin falsely claimed that Mr. Wu had married three times
and "made a series of smears and slanders against our company’s legitimate business activities." The marriage allegation appeared to refer to a report in Caixin in 2015.