THE STRANGE TALE OF BO XILAI AND A LEADERSHIP CONTEST "WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS"; ALSO, MURDER

THE SAGA OF

THE PRINCELING

WHO WOULD BE

A POPULIST, AND

ALSO, A PRINCE

BO XILAI

17th CCP Congress

Beijing, October 2007

Here is Bo as Minister of Commerce, just about to be named to the Politburo, and shortly to be given the mega-metropolis of Chongqing out west to run and perhaps to be swallowed up by. He is not about to make the leap into the inner-inner circle of power in Beijing, the Standing Committee of the Politburo. He is literally a back-bencher here, sitting in the last row of the dais of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

As it turns out, Bo does not go quietly into the sunset. He "strikes hard" against the "black" -- crime/corruption/the mafia, and talks "red" -- talks up singing the old red songs -- and acts red too -- promoting some steps toward greater social equality. It is widely assumed that he is campaigning for a seat on the nine-member Standing Committee, to be announced at the 18th Congress this fall.

But surely that is not done?

And then what? His wife murders someone? -- poisons a foreigner? Bo is out as head of Chongqing; suspended from the Politburo, "suspected of being involved in serious discipline violations." His wife, Gu Kailai, has been "transferred to judicial authorities on suspected crime of intentional homicide,” as the officialese has it. "Detained," both of them, it seems.

All out in public now.