BEIJING — 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.
China and Taiwan have been at odds since 1949, when the island split with the mainland after a protracted civil war.
China reveals little about its rulers' personal lives. Conspicuous spending is a sensitive topic in a nation with a huge income gap. Fearful that things were spinning out of control, Chinese authorities jumped into damage-control mode.
Within days, the Propaganda Ministry issued blanket orders to the news media not to cover Zhang's jewelry activities, according to a senior Chinese editor who asked not to be identified. Filtering software was updated to block all queries about "Wen's wife" and "jewelry," although searches under her family name still get some hits.
But the strange jewelry tale also underscores China's ability to chill not only its own media, but increasingly, in a sign of its rising global power, the overseas Chinese media and business communities.
Across the Taiwan Strait, the two Taiwanese jewelers dived for cover. Within days, Yu and Chiou paid for ads in Taiwan's Apple Daily and Hong Kong's pro-Beijing Ming Pao newspapers denying that Zhang had made any purchases "of significant value."
"She came to make an inspection only," Chiou said. "It was impossible for her to shop on the spot. At least 30 to 50 people accompanied her. There was no way to strike a deal under these circumstances."
Yu and Chiou insisted that their public apologies were not the result of political pressure.
Taiwan's jewelry association also urged Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS to issue a retraction. The network agreed to run a second report that included the jewelers' "clarification."
