Bo Xilai's Downfall, A Lesson in Chinese Politics

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  • March 21, 2012 at 11:21 am #27492
    Anonymous
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    sounds like the 1% vs. the 99%ers, the universal haves vs. the have nots. Too bad Bo Xilai can't go on a "talk show" circuit that would let him speak in the West.

    April 27, 2012 at 9:55 am #27493
    Anonymous
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    [font='Times New Roman', serif]Since March 15, The New Yorker magazine has been closely commenting on the Bo scandal. See the posts at: http://www.newyorker.com/search?qt=dismax&sort=score+desc&query=Bo%2C+China&submit=%5B/font%5D
    [font='Times New Roman', serif]Familiar political scandal names like Huey Long and Nixon + Watergate are mentioned to help readers grasp the connections to corruption and wire tapping. I've learned that "smash black", one of Bo's rallying cries, refers to curtailing mafia powers. Tiananmen Square, 1989, is [/font]recalled as the last defining Chinese crisis that caught international attention, but now the Fall of Bo is catching worldwide attention, especially among China-watchers. Multi-millionaires, opaque news reports, secret tapes of Party officials, a presumably murdered Brit, Bo's rich wife, slowly a picture emerges. The media is wondering will the scandal cause any change int he clamp-down of information in China. Meanwhile, finding historical mirror-images seems to be part of the current media commentary.

    May 8, 2012 at 10:21 am #27494
    Anonymous
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    It should come as no surprise that Bo Xilai was well-connected in order to rise as high as he did in the Chinese Communist Party. But I wasn't aware of just how connected he is. Furthermore, the web of intrigue surrounding his ouster gets more complicated every day. It has all the trappings of a Hollywood (or Beijiwood) movie. While looking at a few articles on the subject, I ran across this interesting chart detailing Bo Xilai's connections, family pedigree, and some of the primary players in the events that led to his downfall.

    May 8, 2012 at 10:21 am #4784
    Rob_Hugo@PortNW
    Keymaster

    Recently, Bo Xilai, a popular provincial party chief and member of the politburo not only lost his job, but also was also publicly reprimanded by the party leadership. Bo is known as a retro-Maoist and has been popular with people who are angry that they've been left out of the reforms. He was able to tap into a prevailing feeling, that the haves are getting more, and the have-nots are getting less, and that they're being locked out of the system. This of course made him unpopular with the powers that be. Another thing that was disconcerting with the party leadership was the fact that he has the skill of a Western politician, which has been traditionally looked down upon in China. The retro-Maoist talk has not won him any friends either. He has people singing Maoist songs and talking about going back to the days when everyone was poor, but at least they were equal. What has made Bo Xilai popular with ordinary people is what made him unpopular with the party leadership. The accusation of corruption seems ridiculous, because every Chinese official is corrupt. I guess China’s leadership is not ready to go back to the days of Mao, but they are uncomfortable with slick Western style politicians either.

    Here is a link for more info. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-03-15/bo-xilai-china-scandal/53554204/1

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