China suspends Bo Xilai from Communist Party politburo

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BEIJING: China's Communist Party suspended former high-flying politician Bo Xilai from its top ranks and named his wife, Gu Kailai, as a suspect in the murder of a British businessman, in explosive revelations on Tuesday likely to rattle leadership succession plans.

The decision to banish Bo from the central committee and its politburo, which effectively ends the career of China's brashest and most controversial politician, and the confirmation that his wife is suspected in the murder of Briton Neil Heywood were reported by the official Xinhua news agency.

"Comrade Bo Xilai is suspected of being involved in serious disciplinary violations," said the news agency, citing a decision by the central party leadership, which decided to suspend Bo from its top ranks.

"Police set up a team to reinvestigate the case of the British national Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing," Xinhau said in a separate report, referring to the sprawling southwestern municipality where Bo was party chief until he was dismissed in March as a scandal surrouding him unfolded.

"According to the reinvestigation results, the existing evidence indicates Heywood died of homicide, of which Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, an assistant in Bo's household, are highly suspected," said the news agency, citing a dispute over unspecified "economic interests" between Gu and Heywood.

The central committee is a council of about 200 full members who meet about once a year and the politburo is a more powerful body of about two dozen central committee members.

The announcements are the latest dramatic turns in the scandal over Bo and his family that emerged after his vice mayor, Wang Lijun, fled into a US consulate for 24 hours in February.

Wang's flight triggered a series of revelations and allegations, including questions about the death of the British businessman close to Bo's family.

The party settles on a new top leadership late this year, and Bo was widely seen as pressing for a top post in the politburo standing committee, the innermost core of power.

"This means that Bo's political career is effectively over," Chen Ziming, an independent political scholar in Beijing, said before the announcement, citing rumours of Bo's suspension.

"But a decision to formally expel him would have to be made by the full central committee, which would have to receive a report from the central discipline inspection commission," said Chen.

The decision does not mean Bo has been expelled from the Communist Party. But that risk, and the possibility of criminal charges, remain if the investigation gathers momentum.

Government offices did not immediately comment on the reported decision about Bo.

Ambition

Bo had earlier exuded ambition to enter the next politburo standing committee. A party congress later this year will unveil the new leadership line-up.

The discipline commission is an elite body that enforces party rules and investigates officials accused of corruption and other abuses.

China's censors worked hard to block sensitive words on Chinese microblogging sites, including "Chongqing"; but many users skirted the restrictions and obliquely discussed Bo's fate with a mixture of innuendo and word play.

"What's going on? Why have party officials in Shanghai been called to an emergency meeting?" wrote "Asian Panda" on Sina's Weibo microblog website, responding to a message about Bo.

Wang's flight to the US consulate and his allegations prompted the British government to urge an investigation into the death in November of the Briton, Heywood, who Wang said was close to Bo's family and had a dispute with Bo's wife, Gu.

Bo, 62, and his wife have disappeared from public view since his removal as chief of Chongqing, and they have not responded publicly to the reports. Nor has Wang, who is under investigation.

Handsome and smartly dressed in a party of bland conformists, Bo arrived in Chongqing in 2007 and promoted it as a bold egalitarian alternative model of growth for China.

He vowed to narrow the gap between rich and poor, kindling hopes among supporters that he could nudge the whole country in a similar populist direction if he entered the central leadership.

In a news conference days before his dismissal as Chongqing chief, Bo scorned as nonsense unspecified accusations of misdeeds by his wife and said some people were pouring "filth on my family".

China suspends Bo Xilai from Communist Party politburo, wife suspected of murder - The Times of India
 

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China politician's wife probed over Briton's death



Chinese police have reopened an investigation into the death of a British man after finding evidence Bo Xilai's wife may have been involved in his murder, state media said Tuesday.

Bo Kailai, wife of the disgraced former senior Chinese leader, has been "transferred to judicial authorities on suspected crime of intentional homicide" of Neil Heywood, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Bo Xilai was one of China's most high-profile politicians and a rising star in the ruling Communist Party until he was sacked last month as party chief in the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing.

On Tuesday, Xinhua said he had also been suspended from the Communist Party's 25-member politburo due to suspected "serious discipline violations."

His downfall came after his former police chief, Wang Lijun, went to a US consulate in southern China, where Xinhua said he made allegations about the death of Heywood, a British businessman and associate of Bo.

"Police authorities paid high attention to the case, and set up the team to reinvestigate the case according to law with an attitude to seek truth from facts," Xinhua said.

"According to investigation results, Bogu Kailai, wife of Comrade Bo Xilai, and their son were in good terms with Heywood. However, they had conflict over economic interests, which had been intensified.

"According to reinvestigation results, the existing evidence indicated that Heywood died of homicide, of which Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, are highly suspected."

Those who break China's laws will be "handled in accordance with the law," the Xinhua report said.

China politician's wife probed over Briton's death - Emirates 24/7
 

nrj

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Once tipped as the future leader of China, today this guy is reduced to cinder.
 

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The rise and fall of China's Bo Xilai

Editor's note: "Jaime's China" is a weekly column about Chinese society and politics. Jaime FlorCruz has lived and worked in China since 1971. He studied Chinese history at Peking University (1977-81) and was TIME Magazine's Beijing correspondent and bureau chief (1982-2000).

Beijing (CNN) -- "Those who win become emperors, those who lose become bandits."

This old Chinese adage may be an apt subtitle to the political drama that has been playing in China in recent months.

It climaxed this week when Bo Xilai, a popular and polarizing politician, was dismissed as Communist Party chief of Chongqing, the biggest metropolis in China.

Bo's dismissal is the most sensational political scandal to hit the Chinese Communist Party in recent years.

China axes Bo Xilai from Chongqing after scandal
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China deals with wealth gap

As a son of a revolutionary veteran and an official with a solid, albeit controversial record, Bo was considered a strong contender for promotion into the Standing Committee of the party's Politburo, whose nine members decide how to run China.

In autumn this year, the Communist Party Congress will convene in Beijing to confirm sweeping changes in this 1.37 billion-strong nation.

Held every five years, it will set national priorities and choose a new set of leaders.

The stage is set for the race to the top.

That race is opaque, mostly decided inside the leadership compound in Zhongnanhai by various factions and vested interests -- conservatives, reformers, party apparatchiks, technocrats, regional leaders, army officers and princelings -- or taizi, referring to the children of veteran officials.

Why Chinese succession matters

For years, Bo seemed destined to succeed in a career that befitted his pedigree as a princeling.

I knew Bo when we both studied at Peking University's history department in the late 1970s. I majored in Chinese history, he in world history.

We sometimes ate lunch together, standing while eating around a table with other classmates in the university cafeteria (there were not enough stools for every diner.) We typically talked about current events and debated history and politics.

Bo was particularly keen to practice speaking English with foreign students like me.

"His top ambition then was to be a Chinese journalist posted overseas," recalls a classmate and close friend of Bo.

Two years later, after getting his Peking University degree, Bo got into the master's degree program in journalism, the first ever, at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

After graduation, however, Bo did not pursue his ambition to become a foreign correspondent. Instead, he worked his way up as a local party and government official.

He spent 17 years in Dalian, a charming but gritty coastal city in northeastern China. He became Dalian mayor in 1993 and transformed it into a popular investment and tourism destination.

As early as 1999, Bo was expected to move to Beijing for a ministerial post but his promotion was aborted when he failed to get elected into the Central Committee, the Communist Party's ruling elite.
He was a tough and effective negotiator in terms of defending China's global trade policies and interests
Wenran Jiang, University of Alberta

Meantime, Bo served as the governor and later party chief of Liaoning, a rust-belt region in northeast China which then boasted of large but mostly money-losing state-owned enterprises. In Liaoning, Bo dealt with high unemployment and endemic corruption.

In 2004, when Bo finally got elected into the elite Central Committee, he moved to Beijing as minister of trade and commerce.

"He was a tough and effective negotiator in terms of defending China's global trade policies and interests," said Wenran Jiang, a professor at the University of Alberta and Bo's former classmate at Peking University.

For decades, Jiang recalls, Bo stood out as one of China's most dynamic and maverick politicians.

I too have seen Bo impress foreign business and political leaders with his charisma and political savvy.

Instead of reading prepared speeches or reciting memorized lines, for example, he often spoke extemporaneously.

"Bo is a populist leader," says Wenfang Tang, a political science professor at the University of Iowa, who also remembers Bo as a fellow student at Peking University in the late 1970s.

"His populist and sometimes emotional appeal sets him apart from the rest of the technocratic leaders who can certainly win the contest for the most boring politicians," Tang opines.

"He would have had a chance to become China's top leader, if China had direct elections. But he shows too much personality and charisma in the post-Mao political culture that emphasizes collective leadership."

Bo gained national prominence -- and a host of enemies -- when he moved in to Chongqing in 2007. There, he made his name by "striking black" and "singing red."

Striking black (dahei in Chinese) refers to a ruthless, relentless crackdown on corruption and gangster activities.
He shows too much personality and charisma in the post-Mao political culture that emphasizes collective leadership
Wenfang Tang, Univeristy of Iowa

Singing red (changhong) refers to mass-singing of militant Cultural Revolution (1966-76) songs that harked back to Maoism.

Bo's "strike black" campaign implicated millionaires, local officials, police officers and gangsters involved in bribery, prostitution, gambling, drugs and guns.

During the crackdown, Bo relied mainly on Wang Lijun, a tough and decorated policeman who served as Chongqing's police chief from 2009 to 2011.

The campaign led to thousands of arrests and several executions. Wang was promoted to vice mayor as a reward.

Ironically, it was also Wang Lijun who torpedoed Bo's career.

On February 8, Wang was unexpectedly reported to be "on leave" for health reasons.

Days later, Wang mysteriously fled into the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, six hours' drive away from Chongqing.

The next day, Wang left the consulate "of his own volition," U.S. officials said, and was taken into custody by security officials.

Asylum rumors sparked by China crime buster's 'medical leave'

It remains unclear why Wang attempted to seek refuge in the U.S. consulate and what repercussions his action may have.

The "Wang Lijun Incident," as the Chinese media calls it, has been under investigation.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao this week said the results of the investigation will be made public and "should be able to stand the test of law and history."

Meantime, the scandal has led to Bo Xilai's humiliating downfall. Beijing is abuzz with rumors that worse punishment may await Bo.

On China's treacherous road to the pinnacle of power, it takes only a few wrong turns for a maverick politician to end up like a "bandit."

The rise and fall of China's Bo Xilai - CNN.com
 

panduranghari

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Bo Xilai's wife questioned over the murder in China of Neil Heywood - Telegraph

Bo Xilai's wife questioned over the murder in China of Neil Heywood



Former party chief in the city, Bo Xilai, has been suspended from top party bodies, state media said.
Evidence gathered during a police investigation indicated that Heywood's death was homicide and that Bo's wife, Gu Kalai, and an orderly at the Bo's home are "highly suspected," reported Xinhua.
"Police set up a team to reinvestigate the case of the British national Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing," Xinhau said in a separate report, referring to the sprawling southwestern municipality where Bo was party chief until he was dismissed in March as a scandal surrouding him unfolded.
"According to the reinvestigation results, the existing evidence indicates Heywood died of homicide, of which Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, an assistant in Bo's household, are highly suspected," said the news agency, citing a dispute over unspecified "economic interests" between Gu and Heywood.
A separate item on Xinhua said that Bo has been suspended from membership China's elite Central Committee and Politburo. Bo is suspected of "serious discipline violations," said Xinhua.

The Central Committee is a council of some 200 senior officials who meet about once a year and the Politburo is a more powerful body of about two dozen Central Committee members.
Four sources, speaking to the Reuters news agency, said the ruling party had made the decision after investigating Mr Bo, the former party chief of Chongqing municipality in southwest China, over a scandal that emerged after his chief of police, Wang Lijun, fled into a US consulate for 24 hours in February.
Mr Wang's flight triggered a series of revelations, including questions about the death of Neil Heywood, a British businessman close to Mr Bo's family. Mr Bo was dismissed as Chongqing party chief in mid-March.
Last month, the Foreign Office confirmed it had asked China to open a fresh investigation into Mr Heywood's death on November 14. The Foreign Office said other businessmen in Beijing had suggested there may have been foul play.
The party settles on a new top leadership late this year, and Mr Bo had been widely seen as campaigning for a post in it.
Mr Bo has been removed from the Central Committee, a council of some 200 senior officials who meet about once a year, and from the Politburo, a more powerful body of about two dozen Central Committee members, said the sources.
Three of China's largest internet companies meanwhile promised the government they will take steps to banish online rumours, state media said on Tuesday, as the ruling Communist Party fights jitters over their tricky leadership transition.
A dispatch by the official Xinhua news agency made no mention of rumours of a foiled coup in Beijing that spread on the internet in past weeks, after the abrupt ousting of Mr Bo.
But the article was the latest in a series carried by state media lambasting online rumours and those who spread them.
After Mr Bo was sacked, popular microblogs, including those run by Sina Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd, were awash with speculation about a coup.
Xinhua said that both companies, along with top search engine Baidu Inc, would "resolutely support and co-operate with relevant government departments in measures to fight and clear up online rumours".
They would also "earnestly fulfil their responsibility to society, follow the law, increase management of the internet and adopt effective measures" to guard against rumours.
While the coup rumours were unfounded, their spread and the tightening of internet controls and warnings to ignore such talk have reflected worries about stability after Mr Bo's fall.
Last week, China's top military newspaper told troops to ignore online rumours.
And in late March, authorities shut 16 Chinese websites and detained six people accused of spreading rumours about unusual military movements and security in the capital.
The rumours fed on speculation about the ousting of Bo over a month after his vice mayor, Wang Lijun, fled to a U.S. consulate, triggering a scandal exposing accusations of infighting and abuses of power.
 

Ray

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Given China's disparity of income and lifestyle, Bo's Born Again Mao attitude was getting too dangerous for the CPC.

In fact, Wen has warned of another 'Cultural Revolution' for China would be dangerous.

Lack of reform may invite another Cultural Revolution: Wen
Lack of reform may invite another Cultural Revolution: Wen
 

Iamanidiot

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He wagged his tail too much and wanted to drag China into another Cultural revolution or something for his personal gains.Good thing the bugger is removed.Cutting this bugger down will be a good legacy of the outgoing bunch
 

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There is chaos underway now since the succession plan is officially shaken up.
 

nrj

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Any idea how internet is being monitored today in China?
 

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China Cracks Down on the Websites of Bo Xilai's Supporters

It's the latest crackdown on China's rambunctious Web. On April 6 nationalist website Utopia, which had run hundreds of articles supporting former Party Secretary Bo Xilai and the Chongqing model, named after the southwestern city he ran with neo-Maoist zeal, was shut down indefinitely. That followed an initial shuttering of Utopia, at the time of Bo's dismissal on March 15, with the site then allowed to reopen just days later.

According to a notice posted on Utopia the day of its latest closure, local Internet and public security bureaus informed the site it was being punished for publishing "articles that violated the constitution, maliciously attacked state leaders, and speculated wildly about the 18th Party Congress" (this Congress takes place in the fall and will mark the transition to a new leadership). Utopia was told it must undergo "a self-inspection beginning from noon on April 6, 2012, to be brought back online after an examination was passed," explained the initial notice. That notice was later replaced by one simply saying, "Website under construction."

A week earlier, China's Internet authorities announced they were shutting down 16 websites and had detained six people for, according to the State Internet Information Office, "fabricating or disseminating online rumors," reported the official Xinhua news agency on March 31. Meanwhile, websites Sina and Tencent's Twitter-like micro-blogging sites had their commentary sections disabled for three days at the beginning of April, and have been "criticized and punished accordingly" by Internet authorities, Xinhua said.

That was apparently in response to the rampant speculation set off on China's Internet when Bo was sacked in mid-March, and his demoted police chief, Wang Lijun, just days earlier failed in a bid for political asylum in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan. The wild surmising on China's Web reached a crescendo of sorts the week of March 12, with reports that a coup had been attempted in Beijing amid deep divisions among China's top leaders in the run-up to a leadership succession due this fall. The clampdown became necessary following false online reports about "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing," according to Xinhua.

Even as Beijing once again asserts its heavy hand over the Chinese Web, many are wondering why it waited so long. Indeed, more notable than the latest crackdown has been the surprising openness allowed over the past month. That's not to say there has been any trend of liberalization, however, argues Jeremy Goldkorn, founding director of Beijing-based Danwei, a China Internet and media research firm. He points to the new rule that requires bloggers to use their real names to register—only partially enforced, to date—as proof of a counter, tightening trend.

Rather, the relative looseness seen recently is due to the substantial challenge Beijing authorities face in monitoring the world's largest Internet population. China has 485 million Internet users and 300 million registered micro-bloggers, according to Zhang Xinsheng, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as reported by Xinhua late last year. "This is more because it has become a Sisyphean task to monitor the Internet," says Goldkorn, pointing to how difficult it is for censors and software to keep up with evasive tactics, such as the regular use of puns and homonyms by China's netizens.

To get around censorship on the Web, for example, supporters of Bo Xilai have referred to him by using the characters for "bu hou," meaning literally, "not thick." That's because the Chinese character for "Bo" can also mean "thin" when pronounced slightly differently.

At the same time, it appears the Internet has become a battleground for different factions within China or, more specifically, for those wishing to bring down Bo during the unfolding scandal. "It is true they did not clamp down on the Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai rumors at first. Some of the stuff that was spread online seemed to be allowed in order to blacken Bo Xilai's name," says Danwei's Goldkorn. "I think Bo's enemies have used the Internet to hasten his downfall."

Perhaps the even bigger reason is the schizophrenia Beijing feels toward the Web. While on one hand it wants to control the Internet, it also increasingly relies on it, with almost all government agencies and city offices now maintaining their own websites and often blogs, as well. Police stations, for example, regularly use micro-blogging, usually called "weibo" in China, for everything from citing crime statistics to publicizing social order campaigns. Just as important, the Internet has become key for Beijing to monitor what its citizens are concerned or riled up about, whether it's official corruption or high property prices.

"The government for a long time has recognized that the Internet is a place for citizens to let off steam but is also a platform that allows the government to get a read on what is going on across the country, in the provinces," says Goldkorn. "But they have a tough time balancing that with their desire to ensure the Internet does not lead to instability, or to any kind of threat to their control."

China Cracks Down on the Websites of Bo Xilai's Supporters - Businessweek
 

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Coup talk: China govt asks army to ignore internet

China's top military newspaper has told troops to ignore rumours on the internet and steel themselves for "ideological struggle" — an apparent reference to talk of a coup as the ruling Communist party faces a leadership transition.

The Liberation Army Daily did not mention rumours of a foiled junta that spread on the internet in recent weeks after the ousting of Bo Xilai, an ambitious contender for a spot in the new central leadership structure to be settled later this year.

But in a sign of jitters in Beijing, the newspaper in a front-page commentary left no doubt the party leadership wants to inoculate People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops against rumours that could erode the authority of President Hu Jintao, who also serves as head of the party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, which commands the PLA.

Some websites and internet services were shut down or restricted as the regime rushed to stamp out the coup claims.

The paper exhorted soldiers to "resolutely resist the incursion of all kinds of erroneous ideas, not be disturbed by noise, not be affected by rumours, and not be drawn by undercurrents, and ensure that at all times and under all circumstances the military absolutely obeys the command of the party central leadership, the central military commission and Chairman Hu".

The commentary directed at the military follows other remarks aimed at reinforcing the party's grip on opinion after an unsettling two months of political upheaval, at a time the leadership prizes stability.

In late March, the authorities shut 16 Chinese websites and detained six people accused of spreading rumours about unusual military movements and security in the capital, feeding talk of an attempted coup or schism in the leadership.

The rumours fed on speculation about the ousting of Bo Xilai, who in mid-March was removed as party boss of Chongqing in south-west China.

Coup talk: China govt asks army to  ignore internet - Hindustan Times
 

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Once tipped as the future leader of China, today this guy is reduced to cinder.
Who told you that he was to be the future leader of China?

This guy was never in CCP's plan. The reason of his today is that he tried to become the future leader by taking an extrim path.
 

nrj

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Who told you that he was to be the future leader of China?

This guy was never in CCP's plan. The reason of his today is that he tried to become the future leader by taking an extrim path.
Sure he was extremist & wrong. How can CCP's decision be ever flawed?
 

badguy2000

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Bo would be a popular leader ,if he were in India,because he is a master ,making full of use of populism.

However, Bo obvioulsy is not a guy who can transform a country smoothly.
 

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Bo would be a popular leader ,if he were in India,because he is a master ,making full of use of populism.

However, Bo obvioulsy is not a guy who can transform a country smoothly.
Agreed. But in india too, such a guy would fail. What India requires is a person who can remain in the system and STILL CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
 

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Bo would be a popular leader ,if he were in India,because he is a master ,making full of use of populism.

However, Bo obvioulsy is not a guy who can transform a country smoothly.
Wonder if you had told the same thing of he was elected CPC chairman.
 

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Wonder if you had told the same thing of he was elected CPC chairman.
well, you obviously know little about CHina...

even CHina leaders today are usually mocked and given freaky nickname by CHinese netizens ....

for example....Hu Jingtao's nickname is "Facioplegia Emperor",because he is always glassy-eyed and straightfaced on TV

Wen Jiabao's nicename is "Moieking", because people suspect that all he does is to make a show how good he is ....in fact lots of reports suggest that Wen and his son is not sooo clean as Wen shows....
 

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Giving nickname is another thing mate.
 

singa

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Who told you that he was to be the future leader of China?

This guy was never in CCP's plan. The reason of his today is that he tried to become the future leader by taking an extrim path.
Yes, he is trying to challenge the things that he is not able to do. Same as Gaddafi, he challenged USA and China at the same time. then nobody would help him.
 

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