Source: Internet
導讀：當香港網民還在猜測美國財政部會向那一間中資銀行施加次級制裁 (Secondary sanction)，國際調查記者聯盟 (the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ) 在 9 月 14 日發布最新一份的調查報導，名為 the China Capital investigation，焦點是中國工商銀行 (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ICBC) 的倫敦分行。是否打向四大國有銀行的第一槍，自己想。
重點：ICIJ 分析黑客取得的接近五百萬份銀行內部文件，研究中國工商銀行如何執行國家指派的政治任務，向華為（HUAWEI）提供救命錢，跟被制裁的俄羅斯富商做生意，以及銀行內部一些違反反洗錢法規的做法。以下提供相關的 ICIJ 連結。
延伸閱讀／參考資料：
FAQs
Frequently
asked questions about the China Capital investigation
How
does the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China operate? What did ICIJ uncover
in millions of confidential bank records? These questions and more, answered.
By
Scilla Alecci, Micah Reddy and Dean Starkman
ICIJ
September 14, 2026
https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/faqs-icbc-china-capital-bank/
What is the China Capital investigation?
China Capital is a cross-border investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that exposes how the world’s biggest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), maneuvers behind closed doors to help Beijing achieve its geopolitical goals.
Based on a trove of 4.8 million ICBC records, the investigation reveals that ICBC used its London operations as a financing hub for companies linked to sanctioned Russian and Belarusian business owners, autocrats publicly accused of corruption, debt-ridden states and China’s political establishment. At times, the records show, the bank breached its own sanctions and anti-money laundering policies.
What is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China?
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is the world’s largest bank with more than $8 trillion in assets. Unlike its commercial banking peers, ICBC is state-owned. Its majority shareholders are China’s Finance Ministry and a prominent sovereign wealth fund, and it serves Beijing’s interests.
ICBC had 410 subsidiaries and branches in 49 countries and regions by the end of 2025.
What are some of the key findings of the China Capital investigation?
The investigation found ICBC staff in London acted at the direction of the bank’s Beijing headquarters to pursue explicitly political objectives for the Chinese state: cement alliances, acquire natural resources and expand control over communications, energy and transportation infrastructure globally. ICBC London continued to bank — and make exceptions for — high-risk clients even after authorities in more than a dozen countries expressed concerns about ICBC’s compliance and anti-money laundering practices.
ICIJ found that the bank served a surprising number of clients linked to autocrats, oligarchs and Chinese companies with political connections. These included a mining behemoth partly owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs; a bank owned by the daughters of Azerbaijan’s longtime authoritarian ruler; Angola’s state oil company; and a Chinese company that partnered with a firm sanctioned by the European Union for supporting Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
China Capital reveals that in early 2019, not long after the U.S. Justice Department indicted Huawei for allegedly violating sanctions on Iran and other crimes, ICBC bankers in London swiftly transferred a staggering $1.3 billion in “emergency cash” for the tech giant. The transaction, while not illegal, triggered a wave of recriminations and infighting at the bank, particularly from its own financial crime prevention unit, which was not told about the move ahead of time.
ICIJ’s investigation also lays bare what experts describe as the bank’s “muscular” lending tactics, which have burdened some of Africa’s most economically vulnerable states, including Zambia. Years of permissive lending to that country — where Chinese contractors secured loans for Zambia’s government to fund their own projects — ultimately ended in Zambia defaulting in 2020. The default was followed by years of difficult debt restructuring talks and sluggish recovery.
How did ICBC respond to ICIJ’s findings?
ICBC does not list any media relations contact on its website. ICIJ emailed several current and former ICBC employees who did not respond to repeated requests for comment. A reporting partner from The Times personally delivered ICIJ’s questions to the bank’s London office as well but did not receive any response.
What data was used in the China Capital investigation?
China Capital’s rare view of ICBC’s inner workings comes from the confidential archives of the bank’s London branch and a U.K. subsidiary, dated between 2005 and 2024.
The trove includes reports marked as trade secrets; internal emails in English and Chinese; confidential dossiers and lists on more than 4,000 corporate clients; meeting minutes; suspicious transaction logs; and directives from the bank’s Communist Party committee, an internal cell that facilitates party activities and advances government policies.
ICIJ also analyzed agreements related to about 200 loans which ICBC London committed to provide — alone or in coordination with other banks — to nearly 200 borrowers. Among them were the Zambian government and companies headquartered or operating in about 30 countries, including the U.K., South Africa and Luxembourg and some offshore financial centers.
How did ICIJ obtain the China Capital documents?
The 4.8 million records were obtained by hacking groups and later leaked anonymously to ICIJ, which shared them with its media partners after a preliminary analysis concluded that the information was of global public interest.
Who are ICIJ’s partners on the China Capital investigation?
The ICIJ-led investigation included 75 journalists from 24 newsrooms: The Times, Der Spiegel, The Africa Report, The Indian Express, Belarusian Investigative Center, CommonWealth News, Göteborgs-Posten and more.
Who funds ICIJ?
You
can find a list of our recent supporters here.
https://www.icij.org/about/our-supporters/
including
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/
The
founder of the Open Society Foundations
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/who-we-are
George Soros, the founder of the Open Society Foundations, began his philanthropic work in 1979, funding scholarships for Black African university students in South Africa and for East European dissidents to study in the West.
（這是 Executive
Summary）
VIDEO
WATCH:
How the world’s biggest bank advances Beijing’s interests
Based
on a trove of 4.8 million records, China Capital reveals how ICBC used its U.K.
operations to pursue explicitly political objectives for its majority
shareholder, the Chinese government.
By Carmen Molina Acosta and Scilla Alecci
ICIJ
September 14, 2026
https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/icbc-china-capital-video/
China
Capital: How the world’s largest bank advances Beijing's interests (1:45
minutes)
ICIJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIdVaia1KPo
OVERVIEW
Chinese
banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s
agenda
Confidential
records reveal how the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s London units
courted high-risk clients to secure resources and alliances for Xi Jinping’s
regime.
By
Scilla Alecci
ICIJ
September
14, 2026
https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/china-banking-icbc-oligarchs-sanctions-london/
Key Points:
- China Capital shows how ICBC London routinely financed companies with opaque financial flows and murky corporate ownership, justifying the deals as part of its support for the government’s top priorities: the massive infrastructure investment plan known as the Belt and Road Initiative and the industrial policy Made in China 2025. The bank’s risky practices often sparked internal misgivings and recriminations, the records show.
- “There is very little appetite to offboard high financial crime risk business,” a money laundering reporting officer noted in an internal memo in 2019.
- China Capital reveals that ICBC offered services to clients that were shunned by Western lenders for failing to stem corruption or cut ties with sanctioned owners or partners. Among its top clients: Russian and other companies crucial to sustain Moscow’s military operations.
- Those included the Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel, also known as Nornickel, held up by President Vladimir Putin as a symbol of resistance despite the difficulties caused by the Western sanctions. In 2024, ICBC London and other overseas branches considered providing loans in Chinese currency and other financial services to Nornickel — a longtime client controlled by Putin allies — at a time when the U.K. and the U.S. had banned imports of Russian nickel in an effort to starve the Kremlin’s war machine. As other international banks wavered, ICBC remained a reliable partner, the records show. Nornickel’s minerals are vital to China’s booming electric vehicle and battery industries.
- ICBC was one of the few foreign banks that actually increased exposure to Russia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Between 2022 and 2023, ICBC more than doubled its gross revenue in Russia and earned around $370 million in 2024, according to the latest available figures analyzed by the Kyiv School of Economics.
- While regulators in the U.S., Canada and Luxembourg have fined the bank’s local units for violating rules to prevent financial crimes, including those to combat sanctions evasion, the confidential records reveal that about a dozen other countries had expressed concerns about similar flaws at ICBC’s overseas entities. The bank’s executives were also aware of compliance failures at its London operations, the records show.
- Through a spokesperson, the Chinese government said it rejects any “false narratives” of “opaque lending.” A representative for the Embassy in Zambia told ICIJ in a statement that China’s overseas financing “strictly” follows market rules and international norms and “never … seeks political interests.”
- China Capital exposes how ICBC helps Beijing to pursue profit and power, ignoring international standards when the occasion suits. ICBC did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment.
HUAWEI
Chinese bank helped Huawei spirit $1B out of
London days after US indictment of the tech giant
The urgent operation exposes how readily
ICBC’s local branch bypassed internal checks to boost a Beijing favorite.
By Scilla Alecci
September 14, 2026
https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/huawei-icbc-banking-us-court-beijing-london/
Key Points:
- It was Feb. 2, 2019, and the Lunar New Year holiday would soon halt operations at the Beijing headquarters of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
- Five thousand miles from the Chinese capital, the bank officers made their way through the lobby of ICBC’s London branch, housed inside an imposing building a short walk from London Bridge. The bank’s managers had called them in on the weekend with a request: Swiftly transfer $1.3 billion for an important client, the Chinese tech giant Huawei.
- The company needed to repatriate its “emergency cash,” according to confidential ICBC records reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The bankers suspected that the urgency might have something to do with a recent scandal making international headlines. “[I]t was probably the negative news,” Chenhu Liu, a senior bank officer who attended the meeting, later told an internal auditor.
- Five days earlier, the U.S. Justice Department had unsealed an indictment accusing Huawei of fraud, violating sanctions on Iran and other crimes. (Huawei has denied wrongdoing, and the case is being tried in New York.) The company’s chief financial officer — the founder’s daughter — was under house arrest in Canada after being detained at the request of the U.S.
- The incident triggered an unprecedented
diplomatic spat as Chinese authorities retaliated by detaining two Canadians on
spurious espionage charges. And yet, in London, the
criminal case did not deter the ICBC officers from fulfilling Huawei’s request
within a matter of hours. The transaction, while not
illegal, reveals how readily ICBC’s London branch bypassed ordinary banking
protocols to satisfy the demands of its Chinese parent, especially when a
strategic client — one that had come to symbolize China’s technological
advancement — needed a helping hand.
CORRUPTION
ICBC promoted corrupt executive, ignored
employee misconduct as it pursued global expansion
The Chinese banking giant turned a blind eye to alleged fraud and embezzlement within its ranks for years, according to a tranche of confidential files.
By Scilla Alecci
ICIJ
September 14, 2026
Intro: For many years, Zhang Hongli was the face of China’s banking might. A plugged-in networker who golfed with Beijing princelings, Zhang helmed the Asia units of Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs before becoming a senior executive vice president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2010.
Just “ZHL” in some of ICBC’s internal communications, Zhang traveled the world to sign lucrative deals with new business partners, hobnob with corporate clients and meet bank staff, according to a trove of confidential records. He was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Some bank records refer to Zhang as “comrade.”
His rise continued even after his former employer, Deutsche Bank, filed a civil claim in 2014, alleging he had improperly transferred $3.9 million to a relative’s consulting company while heading the bank’s China unit. An internal investigation found that he had used the company to siphon off bank funds intended to secure a deal, records show. (The two sides were in settlement talks, Hong Kong media reported that year, but it is unclear how the case was resolved.)
Despite the troubling allegation by a high-profile plaintiff, ICBC
promoted Zhang to executive director, and he went on to become a leading force
of the bank’s international expansion.
相關的文章：
Pandora Papers
2021 年 10 月 4 日
https://xiaoshousha.blogspot.com/2021/10/pandora-papers.html
ICIJ links for readers interested in offshore
finance:
諜影
2016 年 4 月 22 日
http://xiaoshousha.blogspot.hk/2016/04/blog-post_22.html
節錄：根據 Washington Post 的報導，負責分析文件的國際調查記者聯盟 (The International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists, ICIJ) 背後的美國公共誠信中心 (Center
for Public Integrity)，金主是國際大鱷索羅斯 (George Soros)。他較早前表示會「沽空亞洲貨幣」，令偉大祖國非常緊張，官媒輪流開炮。索羅斯戰績彪炳，利用在金融市場賺來的錢，資助共產黨的對頭人。中國和俄羅斯的領導人首當其衝，被爆陰毒，理所當然。
The Coin Laundry
2025 年 12 月 3 日
https://xiaoshousha.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-coin-laundry.html
節錄：ICIJ 的全名是 The International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists，曾經多次公開離岸公司文件，把那些文件交由多國的調查記者跟進，代表作：Panama Papers, Pandora Papers。ICIJ 的其中一個捐款人是索羅斯 (George Soros) 創辦的 Open Society
Foundations。ICIJ 承認索羅斯是其中一位捐款人，但是沒有交代他佔捐款總額的比例。索羅斯曾經沽空港元（提示：1998 亞洲金融風暴），所以他每次開腔評論中國經濟都令大陸官媒非常緊張。因為牽涉索羅斯，香港的財經媒體對 ICIJ 發表的調查報導避而不談。簡單地說，港媒自我審查。原因？你懂的。
地獄黑仔王
2020 年 8 月 13 日
https://xiaoshousha.blogspot.com/2020/08/blog-post.html
節錄：中美關係惡化，蔓延到金融領域，在美國有業務的中資銀行可能有麻煩，萬一被排除於美元結算系統以外，日常營運肯定會受影響，今次中銀又是首當其衝。根據國際傳媒的報導，中銀內部已經進行相關研究，開始準備應變計畫，請參考＜延伸閱讀＞部份所提供的英語報導。至於經濟蕭條和失業高企對於傳統銀行業所帶來的挑戰，這個博客的讀者應該懂，無須長篇大論。
英倫黑錢
2022 年 3 月 1 日
https://xiaoshousha.blogspot.com/2022/03/blog-post.html
節錄：英國傳媒的看法：中國人很可能繼俄羅斯人之後，利用英國的金融中心地位洗黑錢。英國的政府部門已經準備收緊移民政策及加強相關的反洗黑錢法規。今日的西方世界視俄羅斯和中國為敵人，有這種想法，不難理解（提示：英國和美國因應俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭，準備在金融層面對俄羅斯實施制裁）。如果屬實，那些來自俄羅斯和中國的黑錢，稍後是否又要轉移到另一個地方（傳統的避稅天堂還是網上的虛擬世界）？即是（洗黑錢的）老鼠繼續逃避御貓（監管機構）的追捕？貓捉老鼠（提示：Tom & Jerry），沒完沒了，就是這樣。
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