Hostile Western forces are
behind the "Panama Papers", a state-run Chinese newspaper alleged
Tuesday, as media avoided reporting revelations about Communist leaders and it
emerged that the law firm involved has eight offices in the country.
The scandal erupted on Sunday
when media groups began revealing the results of a year-long investigation into
a trove of 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca,
which specialises in creating offshore shell companies.
At least eight current or
former members of China's Politburo Standing Committee, the ruling party's most
powerful body, have been implicated, according to the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which co-ordinated the reports.