Beijing, April 5

China today dismissed as “groundless” allegations that eight of its ruling Communist Party officials, including President Xi Jinping’s brother-in-law Deng Jiagui, used off-shore tax heavens while the official media here alleged that “powerful” western forces were behind the ‘Panama Papers’.“For such groundless allegations I have no comments to make,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told mediapersons. He declined to answer another question about whether China, which embarked on new tax reforms, will investigate the offshore accounts. “As for the Panama papers, I have no comment,” Hong said. — PTI