Continuing with targeting the Modi government alleging undue benefits to Adani group, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that a Chinese company was given contacts to build critical infrastructure projects. Quoting a report by an anti-Adani propaganda portal named Adani Watch, the disqualified Lok Sabha member asked, “Why are India’s critical ports, airstrips, railway tracks and electricity lines being built & controlled by a Chinese company?”
Referring to an Adani group company PMC projects mentioned in the report, he said, “PMC Projects – ‘Pradhan Mantri Chinese’ Projects?”
PMC Projects – ‘Pradhan Mantri Chinese’ Projects?
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 6, 2023
Why are India’s critical ports, airstrips, railway tracks and electricity lines being built & controlled by a Chinese company? pic.twitter.com/lzAHLZ0Sm3
The report by Adani Watch published today claims that while the company PMC Projects (India) Private Limited operates from premises owned by Adani Enterprises, it is owned by a Chinese national named Chang Chien-Ting (also known as Morris Chang). It says that Chang Chien-Ting son of Chang Chung-Ling, who has been a director of many Adani companies over the years.
Claiming that Chang Chien-Ting is a Chinese national, the portal wrote, “The involvement of a Chinese-owned company in the establishment of critical infrastructure in India raises questions about national security.” It says that PMC Projects has been developing seaports, container terminals, airstrips, electricity transmission lines and railway tracks, and other public utilities in India.
But the claim by Adani Watch and Rahul Gandhi that PMC Projects is owned by a Chinese national is completely false, because, Chang Chien-Ting is actually a Taiwanese national. Taiwan has friendly relations with India, and therefore, there is nothing wrong if a Taiwanese national on a valid visa works for an Indian company.
Interestingly, the Hindenburg report, which is the source of the Adani Watch article, mentions that Chang is Taiwanese, but they still called him Chinese. The Hindenburg report quotes an official filing showing that Chang Chien-Ting was named as a significant beneficial owner of PMC Projects, following amendments made to the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules, 2018.
In this document, the nationality of Chang Chien-Ting is listed as the Republic of China. Presumably, Adani Watch and Rahul Gandhi deduced that he is Chinese from this. But the fact is, the Republic of China is not mainland China, it is the official name of Taiwan. On the other hand, mainland China’s official name is the People’s Republic of China.
The reason for this confusing name of the two countries is that both claims to be the official Republic of China. The Republic of China was a sovereign state located in mainland China from 1912 to 1949. Following the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party and its People’s Liberation Army defeated the nationalist government and established the People’s Republic of China in 1949. After the defeat, the leadership of the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan island, along with a large number of people opposed to the Communist Revolution.
While they lost the mainland, they retained Taiwan and some of its nearby islands and established the Republic of China government there. Both ROC and PROC claim to be official China.
Therefore, Chang Chien-Ting is from Republic of China which is Taiwan. In fact, the same document lists his address as Xianfu Road, Taoyuan district, Taoyuan city, Taiwan. The Hindenburg report also clearly states that Chang is Taiwanese. It said, “Chinese media also referred to Chang Chien-Ting as Adani Group’s Taiwan representative,” citing a Chinese video report.
Despite this, Adani Watch and Rahul Gandhi wrongly claimed that Chang is a Chinese person.
Notably, calling a Taiwanese person Chinese is a sensitive issue, because China considers Taiwan to be part of it, and claims that people living in Taiwan are Chinese citizens. By this claim, Rahul Gandhi is furthering the CCP propaganda that Taiwan is part of China.
Rahul Gandhi also ignored other claims regarding PMC Project mentioned in the Hindenburg report while attacking PM Modi. The report basically claims that PMC Project is an entity of the Adani group. It claims that it was used to route money out of Adani’s listed companies. While Rahul Gandhi claims PMC Project has built India’s critical infrastructure like ports, airstrips, railway tracks and electricity lines, Hindenburg Research says the company does nothing, and it is just a dummy company of Adani, and most of its revenue comes from other Adani Group companies.
The Hindenburg report says that there are no signs that “PMC Projects does anything separate and apart from functioning as an arm of the Adani Group”. It further mentions that according to a 2014 DRI investigation, PMC Projects was a “dummy firm” used by the Adani Group in a coal/power equipment over-invoicing scandal.
Therefore, Adani has been accused of using PMC Projects as a dummy firm to route money. Nowhere in the report, Hindenburg claimed that PMC was working on critical infrastructure projects as Rahul Gandhi is claiming.
It is also notable that while DRI had alleged that PMC was dummy company used in an over-invoicing scam, the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESAT) had quashed the charges. While DRI had moved Supreme Court against this order, the Supreme Court had also ruled in favour of the company, ruling out any irregularities.
