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SUNDAY POUCH

The Bo Xi Lai affair
Apolitical storm is at present blowing in China. Toward the end of this year, the Chinese Communist Party Congress,
which meets once eve ry fiv e years, will be voting in the 25-member Politburo that virtually rules the country. Within this body is the 9-member Standing Committee. These nine, like in the past, will be the key persons who will turn the political, economic and social wheels of China for the next five years. From among the nine one can expect that a new president and a prime minister will be chosen to take office in early 2013.
So from now till the end of this year, when this choosing takes place, there will be a lot of jockeying for power from the possible hopefuls. A president and a prime minister have been unofficially anointed and are waiting in the wings. But the remaining seven positions in the Standing Committee are up for grabs. This time new faces are expected as the existing ones will retire. Over the last decade, therefore, political head-hunters had been hard at work zooming in on several eminent leaders, who have assumed great power and influence in some of China's big cities and provinces.
One such leader, until recendy, was Bo Xi Lai. A tall, handsome and urbane figure, he has remarkable credentials. His father was one of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party of China. He was known as one of the "princelings" in Chinese politics. His strength was in cultivating a casual and charismatic image in the media. This is unlike the staid nature of Chinese politics.
He came to prominence when he was the mayor of the coastal city of Dalian and then as the governor of the province of Lianoning. Then he went to serve as the minister of the powerful Ministry of Commerce in Beijing. Soon after, he was sent as the head of the Communist Party of the mega city Chongqing (population 30 million). It
was in Chongqing that he prepared himself politically to take his place as one of the members of the nine-member Politburo.
Bo initiated in Chongqing a campaign against organised crime. He also spent much on welfare programmes for the poor. But his greatest credit was that he could maintain a double digit GDP growth for the city. His political inclination, according to reports, was to revive the "red culture" — a modern version of Chairman Mao Tse Tung's "cultural revolution." He, therefore, mobilised the Maoists and the social democrats into a Chinese new left. But this and his anti-corruption campaigns led to a degree of lawlessness there. His own larger than life personality made him an object of suspicion of the old guard of the Communist Party at the centre. They became fearful that his style of politics could lead to a revival of the anarchic situation that prevailed in
who had studied in the expensive Harrow school in London and is now in Harvard University in the USA, is also being questioned.
The moot question raised by the authorities is how a Communist Party chief like Bo, with a
$22,000 per year salary, could afford to send his son to Harrow and Harvard and to maintain the lavish lifestyle of his son, who had been reported several times in the past as splurging in parties in USA.
The story goes that Bo siphoned off ill-gotten money in Chongqing and, through the British national, sent it abroad. In one of the last transactions Neil had asked for a bigger commission for his services, which was refused. It is thought that this could be reason he was done away with. Wang Lijun in spite of his close association with Bo, was unable to stomach it any longer and so went to the Consulate and spilled the beans.
China during the period of Mao.
Bo's ambitions came to an abrupt halt recently when the Wang Lijun incident took place. Wang Julin was Bo's trusted aide and Chongqing police chief. He walked into the American consulate in the neighbouring city of Chengdu with incriminating and sensitive documents about the corrupt practices of his boss Bo Xi Lai. He sought political asylum there as he feared for his life. Bo had sent the police to surround the American consulate there. Wang Lijun then sought Beijing's direct intervention to save him. He was then taken from Chengdu consulate and sent to a jail in Beijing.
In the meantime, investigation was started against Bo. His wife, Gu Kai Lai, was also arrested on suspicion of poisoning a British national, Neil Heywood, who knew much about Bo's underhand activities. Bo's son,
Bo's downfall has elicited strong reactions from a section of the Chinese public. Many leftist web sites were angry about Bo's dismissal. They termed it as a "plot by the enemies of the state." But the Central Communist Party is adamant that Bo was in the wrong. It has now started to look into Bo's high spending in Chongqing.
Bo spent lavishly on Chongqing's infrastructure and other projects which made up his so-called leftist "Chongqing model." It strengthened state-owned enterprises alongside a host of social welfare programmes. But it also increased Chongqing's debt problem.
According to China watchers, the Bo affair has exposed a deep fissure in high levels of Chinese politics. The world now has a peep into the ideological and personal rifts in this one party political system. Bo had in some ways spooked the Communist Party.
His was a break from the faceless nature of collective leadership. He seemed to be starting a western style of politics that emphasises personal popularity rather than loyalty to the Party. He sought legitimacy directly from the people and not from the Party.
A key aspect of the Bo affair seems to be a remark made by Chinese Prime Minister Wen lao Bao in a press conference recently. He warned against "a historical tragedy like the Cultural Revolution that may occur again." This was aimed at Bo who, in Chongqing, sang Maoist songs while campaigning against what he called corruption. The remark was to point out that under Bo the Communist Party would move in a Maoist direction.
So, the contest for seats in the allpowerful Standing Committee of the Politburo is heating up. But it must be understood that the spectacular economic gains made by the Communist leadership in China cannot in the long run be sustained if political reforms do not take place simultaneously. For too long there has been a disconnect between economic growth and the political system that facilitates it.
The leadership, being conscious of this, is trying to close ranks and present an image of internal solidarity and incorruptibility capable of delivering what the people in general want. So they are keen to weed out corruption from the highest echelons. Bo's case was, therefore, an appropriate one to seize on.
In present day China, temptation abounds as billions of dollars are spent on major infrastructure projects and on social welfare each year. The top leadership cannot afford to be complacent in taking action against corruption from within themselves. They know that to do otherwise would be to risk their own survival. They are hoping against hope that the apple cart will not be tipped and the changeover takes place peacefully.
For China watchers these are exciting times.
The writer is a former Ambassador and Is a regular