Bo Xilai
Encyclopedia
Bo Xilai is the Communist Party of China
(CPC) Chongqing
Committee Secretary, first-in-charge
of the Western interior municipality and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China
. Between 2004 and November 2007 he was Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China
.
Bo Xilai is the son of Bo Yibo
, one of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party of China, and his rise to fame came from his tenures as the Mayor of the coastal economic hub of Dalian
and subsequently the Governor of Liaoning
. Bo is a representative figure for China's new generation of leaders who are casual in front of the media, a shift away from the deeply serious focus of Chinese politics. In Chongqing, Bo was known for leading a protracted campaign against organized crime
, and for reinstating egalitarian welfare
programs for the city's working class
. During his tenure, Bo's "Chongqing Model" has won accolades from Beijing. He is believed to be one of the emerging leaders of China's 5th Generation of Leadership
.
In 1966, shortly after the Cultural Revolution
was called, Bo and his family were imprisoned for five years, after which they were placed in a labour camp for another five years. After the death of Mao Zedong
, in 1976, the members of the Gang of Four
were officially blamed for the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and Bo's family was released. During the ten years of their detainment Bo's father was tortured and his mother was beaten to death. According to Hong Kong based media STNN (Chinese: 星岛环球网), Bo was one of the Red Guards
during the Cultural Revolution
.
After his release Bo worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau before he was admitted to the Peking University
Department of History, majoring in world history, in 1977. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree. In 1982, Bo graduated from the Postgraduate Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
with a Master's degree
.
by transferring to one of the most underdeveloped counties in China and starting at the very bottom of the political hierarchy. Bo thus became Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Jinxian County
Party Committee in Liaoning. Then Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Secretary of the Jinzhou Prefectural Party Committee in Liaoning, rising through the ranks to become a member of the Standing Committee of the Dalian Municipal CPC Committee, the city's decision making body. He became the Vice-mayor of Dalian in 1990, and deputy secretary of Dalian Municipal Party Committee.
He took up the post of acting Mayor of Dalian in 1992 and then Mayor of Dalian in 1993. The modern city was built upon the colony of Port Arthur
during the late Qing Dynasty
. He was elected as deputy secretary of CPC Dalian Municipal Committee in June 1995, the city's second-in-charge. In January 1998, he was re-elected mayor of Dalian. And in September 1999, he served as secretary of the CPC Dalian Municipal Committee, the city's number one figure. His term in Dalian was marked by the city's phenomenal growth into a modern metropolis representative of China's economic growth. The Shenyang
-Dalian Expressway was built in the early 1990s, becoming China's first expressway
. Dalian has since then been known as one of the cleanest cities in China, having won the United Nations Habitat Award, and has a very good overall reputation. However, despite the economic growth and significant improvements on GDP per capita, Bo's tenure in Dalian has sometimes been accused of being too focused on aesthetic development projects.
Bo spent seventeen years in the city of Dalian, thus serving the longest time in a single region among the officials of China. Although his popularity with the people was well-known, he was denied promotion by then CPC General Secretary, President Jiang Zemin
. In January 2001, under the pressure of strong public opinion, Bo was transferred to the province as the vice governor, which happened to be equal rank to his municipal position. In the aftermath of the Liaoning 'Mu & Ma' corruption scandal, a major reshuffle of the
Liaoning provincial government took place, and Bo was appointed the Acting Governor of Liaoning Province. In January 2003, Bo was elected as Governor of Liaoning at the first session of the tenth Liaoning People's Congress. However, during the same year Bo was denied by the Communist Party Central Committee members a seat in the party's central leadership.
Bo oversaw Liaoning's development into one of the most economically strong provinces in China, and unlike his predecessors, was clean in terms of moving public funds and other allegations of corruption. Some accused Bo, however, of being fake, a "talker" rather than a "doer".
scandal occurred in Liaoning in 2000. In that year a journalist in Liaoning, Jiang Weiping
, somehow came into the possession of government documents detailing and proving widespread corruption in that province. Jiang then used these documents to write a number of very critical articles on the subject for the Hong Kong magazine "Frontline".
According to these documents, one official in Liaoning was using state money to provide allowances and apartments for 29 of his mistresses. Another official lost $3.6 million of state funds at a Macao
casino; he was later executed for this. According to these documents, Bo Xilai was not himself corrupt per se, but was actively covering up the corruption of his friends and relatives.
In 2001 Jiang was arrested for publishing his allegations and for possessing the documents that supported them. In 2002 he was sentenced to six years in prison. Jiang was released after only five years for good behaviour. He and his wife and child later emigrated to Canada as refugees.
succeeded Jiang Zemin
in the presidency in late 2003, and ended Bo's 20 years service as a local official. Bo was appointed Minister of Commerce in Wen Jiabao
's cabinet, replacing Lü Fuyuan
, who had health problems and was unable to fulfill his duties. Bo concurrently served as a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee, in reality China's central decision making body.
Known for his good looks, articulate speech, open-minded work ethic
, and a generally liberal outlook, Bo's phenomenal rise from a municipal official to the Central government has been of great media attention and has since elevated his status to that of a political star. The archetype of a politician Bo presents is seldom seen with a generally serious and conservative leadership in Beijing. He has a reputation of a Kennedy-esque figure, his charisma known to media from the Mainland, Hong Kong, and even abroad.
Bo's term as Minister of Commerce saw the general trend of attracting foreign investment continue. His daily schedule was dominated with receiving foreign guests and dignitaries. By the time that he held the position of Minister of Commerce, he spoke relatively fluent English. In May 2004 Bo was one of the few hand-picked Ministers to accompany Premier Wen Jiabao on a five-country trip in Europe. The trade policy of the United States toward China also sparked significant controversy, during which Bo kept a cool head as he attended talks in Washington.
Bo also oversaw the restructuring of the Ministry, whose formation was the result of the amalgamation of the National Economics and Commerce Bureau and the Department of International Trade. Bo sought to balance the amount of attention given to foreign investors and domestic commercial institutions. He began tackling the imbalance from the retail sector, whose recent success was largely owing to foreign companies. He drew out various plans to protect Chinese industries so they would not lose their place inside the Chinese market.
in 2007 that Bo would take over as party chief in Chongqing
. Bo took over the position on November 30, replacing Wang Yang, who was transferred to Guangdong
. Bo was also elevated to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China
. His move from the Northeast to the Southwest was another dramatic change for Bo in his political career.
scene. Since June 2009, some 2,000 people were detained in a sweeping campaign against gangsters in the city. In marked departure from other anti-mafia campaigns in China, Bo cracked down on the government officials who served as political back-up to gangsters, not just the gangsters themselves - some of the detained were officials in Bo's own administration, others were from the city's police force. Wen Qiang , one of the most prominent figures implicated in the trials, had been at the top echelons of municipal power since the days of party secretaries He Guoqiang
and Wang Yang. Reports from the Jamestown Foundation suggest that the final decision for such a large-scale crackdown originated from the central authorities and CPC General Secretary, President Hu Jintao, and Bo has been careful to not make the case look as though Chongqing is "trying to set an example" for the rest of the country so he could benefit from the success politically.
Bo's anti-crime measures were criticized for neglecting due process
and for the alleged use of torture to extract confessions, but Bo's apparent willingness to combat crime in a city often seen as center for organized crime earned Bo national recognition. The apparent success of Bo's campaign has led to Bo's "rock star status", and have led to calls from the public for an anti-crime campaign on the model of Bo's anti-crime campaign in Chongqing. Lawyers in Chongqing became afraid to defend those accused of crimes after one lawyer, Li Zhuang, was sentenced to eighteen months in jail for perjury
after representing a triad boss who testified that he was tortured by police. Some observers in Beijing have interpreted Bo's anti-mafia campaign as an insult to Bo's predecessors in Chongqing, Wang Yang, who can now be criticized for his tolerance towards organized crime. In order to reform the local police service, whose police chief was arrested for mafia connections, Bo brought in a police chief that he had employed as governor of Liaoning, Wang Lijun. The appointment of a police chief seen as a Bo loyalist led to rumors that Bo was intent on importing more of his old colleagues from Liaoning to run Chongqing.
celebrations, Bo sent out "red text messages" to the city's 13 million cellphone users. According to Xinhua News Agency
, Bo's text messages are usually quotes from Mao's Little Red Book, and include phrases such as "I like how Chairman Mao puts it: The world is ours, we will all have to work together", and "responsibility and seriousness can conquer the world, and the Chinese Communist Party members represent these qualities." Bo and his team of municipal administrators also raised new Mao statues in Chongqing, while providing 'social security apartments' to the city's needy. Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation characterized this as an example of the revival of Maoism in the Chinese Communist ethos.
In 2011, Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and the city's Media Department initiated a 'Red Songs campaign' that demanded every district, government departments and commercial corporations, universities and schools, state radio and TV stations to begin singing "red songs", praising the achievements of the Communist Party of China and PRC. Bo pledged to reinvigorate the city with the Marxist ideals of his father's comrade-in-arms Mao Zedong
; although academic Ding Xueliang of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
suspected the campaign's aim was to further his political standing within the country's leadership.
during the next Party Congress
, in 2012. At the Party Congress in 2012, current General Secretary Hu Jintao
is expected to be replaced by Xi Jinping
, and Premier Wen Jiabao
will likely be replaced by Vice Premier Li Keqiang
. As many as seven of the current nine members of the Standing Committee are expected to retire, and the shift in power will leave plenty of room for the ambitious Bo to re-enter a position inside the central government in Beijing
. At the Congress, Bo's ability to gain a seat in the Standing Committee is expected to be based largely on how other high-ranking members of the CCP interpret Bo's Maoist enthusiasm, and the crime-fighting credentials that Bo has gained while serving as the Mayor of Chongqing.
Challenges to Bo's ambitions include the prominent difference between Bo's charismatic populism and the leadership style of more traditional CCP politicians best represented by Hu Jintao
, "a paragon of competent, bureaucratic dullness." In spite of Bo's popularity among the public, and the "fawning" attention of the international media, China's top leaders have been reluctant to acknowledge Bo publicly, perhaps due to a discomfort over Bo's leadership style. Wary of the potential for social chaos similar to that created during the Cultural Revolution
, attributed partially to Mao's personality cult, the public images of modern Chinese leaders tend towards stoic reserve.
Bo's success in combating crime
has been observed as making more senior CCP politicians look bad for not achieving equally ambitious results. Politicians who may feel that Bo's efforts weaken their own political achievements by comparison include Bo's predecessors, He Guoqiang
(now himself a member of the Standing Committee) and Wang Yang
(now the Party leader in the high-profile province of Guangdong), who may now be criticized for tolerating the mafia-related corruption of the police and judiciary of Chongqing. Some observers believe that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao may also be criticized at some level for not implementing a similar anti-corruption campaign at the national level. Bo's ability to advance within the Party hierarchy may be challenged to the degree that other senior members of the CCP interpret Bo's ambitions as being potentially threatening to their own.
to have won a public case in the United States. Her father, Gu Jingsheng, a Communist revolutionary and General who led the 12.9 Movement that propelled China to unite against Japanese invasion of Manchuria
in World War II
. She is also a descendant of the renowned Song Dynasty
Prime Minister and Poet Fan Zhongyan
.
They have one son, Bo Guagua. He was the first student from mainland China
to attend Harrow School
for boys in the UK. Guagua was later accepted to Balliol College, Oxford
, where in 2006 he started studying for a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
(CPC) Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
Committee Secretary, first-in-charge
Politics of Chongqing
The politics of Chongqing is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in the People's Republic of China .The Mayor of Chongqing is the highest ranking official in the People's Government of Chongqing...
of the Western interior municipality and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China
Politburo of the Communist Party of China
The Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China or Political bureau of the CPC Central Committee , formerly as Central Bureau before 1927, is a group of 24 people who oversee the Communist Party of China...
. Between 2004 and November 2007 he was Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
.
Bo Xilai is the son of Bo Yibo
Bo Yibo
Bo Yibo was a Chinese politician and one of the Eight Immortals of the Communist Party of China....
, one of the Eight Elders of the Communist Party of China, and his rise to fame came from his tenures as the Mayor of the coastal economic hub of Dalian
Dalian
Dalian is a major city and seaport in the south of Liaoning province, Northeast China. It faces Shandong to the south, the Yellow Sea to the east and the Bohai Sea to the west and south. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, Dalian is the southernmost city of Northeast China and China's...
and subsequently the Governor of Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
. Bo is a representative figure for China's new generation of leaders who are casual in front of the media, a shift away from the deeply serious focus of Chinese politics. In Chongqing, Bo was known for leading a protracted campaign against organized crime
Chongqing gang trials
The Chongqing gang trials were a series of triad-busting trials in the city of Chongqing that began in October 2009 and is ongoing as of July 2010...
, and for reinstating egalitarian welfare
Welfare
Welfare refers to a broad discourse which may hold certain implications regarding the provision of a minimal level of wellbeing and social support for all citizens without the stigma of charity. This is termed "social solidarity"...
programs for the city's working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
. During his tenure, Bo's "Chongqing Model" has won accolades from Beijing. He is believed to be one of the emerging leaders of China's 5th Generation of Leadership
Generations of Chinese leadership
Because both the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army promote according to seniority, it is possible to discern distinct generations of Chinese leadership...
.
Early life
Bo Xilai joined the CPC in October 1980.In 1966, shortly after the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
was called, Bo and his family were imprisoned for five years, after which they were placed in a labour camp for another five years. After the death of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, in 1976, the members of the Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...
were officially blamed for the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and Bo's family was released. During the ten years of their detainment Bo's father was tortured and his mother was beaten to death. According to Hong Kong based media STNN (Chinese: 星岛环球网), Bo was one of the Red Guards
Red Guards (China)
Red Guards were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people in the People's Republic of China , who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.-Origins:...
during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
After his release Bo worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau before he was admitted to the Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
Department of History, majoring in world history, in 1977. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree. In 1982, Bo graduated from the Postgraduate Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , established in 1977, is the premier and highest academic research organization in the fields of philosophy and social sciences as well as a national center for comprehensive studies in the People's Republic of China. It was described by Foreign Policy...
with a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
.
Achievements
Bo then successively worked with the Research Office of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and CPC Central Committee General Office. Given Bo's father's authoritative position in the party, he decided to avoid allegations of nepotismNepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
by transferring to one of the most underdeveloped counties in China and starting at the very bottom of the political hierarchy. Bo thus became Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Jinxian County
Jinxian County
Jinxian is a county in the province of Jiangxi in the People's Republic of China. It lies in the prefecture of Nanchang.The population in 1999 was .- External links :*...
Party Committee in Liaoning. Then Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Secretary of the Jinzhou Prefectural Party Committee in Liaoning, rising through the ranks to become a member of the Standing Committee of the Dalian Municipal CPC Committee, the city's decision making body. He became the Vice-mayor of Dalian in 1990, and deputy secretary of Dalian Municipal Party Committee.
He took up the post of acting Mayor of Dalian in 1992 and then Mayor of Dalian in 1993. The modern city was built upon the colony of Port Arthur
Lüshunkou
Lüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....
during the late Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. He was elected as deputy secretary of CPC Dalian Municipal Committee in June 1995, the city's second-in-charge. In January 1998, he was re-elected mayor of Dalian. And in September 1999, he served as secretary of the CPC Dalian Municipal Committee, the city's number one figure. His term in Dalian was marked by the city's phenomenal growth into a modern metropolis representative of China's economic growth. The Shenyang
Shenyang
Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...
-Dalian Expressway was built in the early 1990s, becoming China's first expressway
Controlled-access highway
A controlled-access highway is a highway designed exclusively for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow and ingress/egress regulated...
. Dalian has since then been known as one of the cleanest cities in China, having won the United Nations Habitat Award, and has a very good overall reputation. However, despite the economic growth and significant improvements on GDP per capita, Bo's tenure in Dalian has sometimes been accused of being too focused on aesthetic development projects.
Bo spent seventeen years in the city of Dalian, thus serving the longest time in a single region among the officials of China. Although his popularity with the people was well-known, he was denied promotion by then CPC General Secretary, President Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...
. In January 2001, under the pressure of strong public opinion, Bo was transferred to the province as the vice governor, which happened to be equal rank to his municipal position. In the aftermath of the Liaoning 'Mu & Ma' corruption scandal, a major reshuffle of the
Liaoning provincial government took place, and Bo was appointed the Acting Governor of Liaoning Province. In January 2003, Bo was elected as Governor of Liaoning at the first session of the tenth Liaoning People's Congress. However, during the same year Bo was denied by the Communist Party Central Committee members a seat in the party's central leadership.
Bo oversaw Liaoning's development into one of the most economically strong provinces in China, and unlike his predecessors, was clean in terms of moving public funds and other allegations of corruption. Some accused Bo, however, of being fake, a "talker" rather than a "doer".
Corruption allegations
A major political corruptionPolitical corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
scandal occurred in Liaoning in 2000. In that year a journalist in Liaoning, Jiang Weiping
Jiang Weiping
Jiang Weiping is a veteran mainland Chinese journalist known internationally for his arrest by the Communist Party of China in 2001. During his career, he received several awards from local and provincial governments for his journalism and reporting. In 1999, he began publishing a series of...
, somehow came into the possession of government documents detailing and proving widespread corruption in that province. Jiang then used these documents to write a number of very critical articles on the subject for the Hong Kong magazine "Frontline".
According to these documents, one official in Liaoning was using state money to provide allowances and apartments for 29 of his mistresses. Another official lost $3.6 million of state funds at a Macao
Mação
Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....
casino; he was later executed for this. According to these documents, Bo Xilai was not himself corrupt per se, but was actively covering up the corruption of his friends and relatives.
In 2001 Jiang was arrested for publishing his allegations and for possessing the documents that supported them. In 2002 he was sentenced to six years in prison. Jiang was released after only five years for good behaviour. He and his wife and child later emigrated to Canada as refugees.
Minister of Commerce
Hu JintaoHu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
succeeded Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin is a former Chinese politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002, as President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2005...
in the presidency in late 2003, and ended Bo's 20 years service as a local official. Bo was appointed Minister of Commerce in Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
's cabinet, replacing Lü Fuyuan
Lü Fuyuan
Lü Fuyuan was the first minister of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China.-Biography:After graduated from Jilin University with a degree in Physics, Lü worked for several years in the First Automobile Works in Changchun, and then studied at the Université de Montréal in...
, who had health problems and was unable to fulfill his duties. Bo concurrently served as a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee, in reality China's central decision making body.
Known for his good looks, articulate speech, open-minded work ethic
Work ethic
Work ethic is a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character. An example would be the Protestant work ethic...
, and a generally liberal outlook, Bo's phenomenal rise from a municipal official to the Central government has been of great media attention and has since elevated his status to that of a political star. The archetype of a politician Bo presents is seldom seen with a generally serious and conservative leadership in Beijing. He has a reputation of a Kennedy-esque figure, his charisma known to media from the Mainland, Hong Kong, and even abroad.
Bo's term as Minister of Commerce saw the general trend of attracting foreign investment continue. His daily schedule was dominated with receiving foreign guests and dignitaries. By the time that he held the position of Minister of Commerce, he spoke relatively fluent English. In May 2004 Bo was one of the few hand-picked Ministers to accompany Premier Wen Jiabao on a five-country trip in Europe. The trade policy of the United States toward China also sparked significant controversy, during which Bo kept a cool head as he attended talks in Washington.
Bo also oversaw the restructuring of the Ministry, whose formation was the result of the amalgamation of the National Economics and Commerce Bureau and the Department of International Trade. Bo sought to balance the amount of attention given to foreign investors and domestic commercial institutions. He began tackling the imbalance from the retail sector, whose recent success was largely owing to foreign companies. He drew out various plans to protect Chinese industries so they would not lose their place inside the Chinese market.
Chongqing
It was widely speculated following the 17th Party Congress17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, China, at the Great Hall of the People from 15 to 21 October 2007. The Congress marked significant shift in the political direction of the country as CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao solidified his position of leadership...
in 2007 that Bo would take over as party chief in Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
. Bo took over the position on November 30, replacing Wang Yang, who was transferred to Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
. Bo was also elevated to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China
Politburo of the Communist Party of China
The Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China or Political bureau of the CPC Central Committee , formerly as Central Bureau before 1927, is a group of 24 people who oversee the Communist Party of China...
. His move from the Northeast to the Southwest was another dramatic change for Bo in his political career.
Organized Crime
Bo's tenure in Chongqing was dominated by a protracted war against the city's organized crimeOrganized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
scene. Since June 2009, some 2,000 people were detained in a sweeping campaign against gangsters in the city. In marked departure from other anti-mafia campaigns in China, Bo cracked down on the government officials who served as political back-up to gangsters, not just the gangsters themselves - some of the detained were officials in Bo's own administration, others were from the city's police force. Wen Qiang , one of the most prominent figures implicated in the trials, had been at the top echelons of municipal power since the days of party secretaries He Guoqiang
He Guoqiang
He Guoqiang is a high-ranking government official in the government of the People's Republic of China. Currently he is the eighth ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee, and the head of the new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection....
and Wang Yang. Reports from the Jamestown Foundation suggest that the final decision for such a large-scale crackdown originated from the central authorities and CPC General Secretary, President Hu Jintao, and Bo has been careful to not make the case look as though Chongqing is "trying to set an example" for the rest of the country so he could benefit from the success politically.
Bo's anti-crime measures were criticized for neglecting due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
and for the alleged use of torture to extract confessions, but Bo's apparent willingness to combat crime in a city often seen as center for organized crime earned Bo national recognition. The apparent success of Bo's campaign has led to Bo's "rock star status", and have led to calls from the public for an anti-crime campaign on the model of Bo's anti-crime campaign in Chongqing. Lawyers in Chongqing became afraid to defend those accused of crimes after one lawyer, Li Zhuang, was sentenced to eighteen months in jail for perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
after representing a triad boss who testified that he was tortured by police. Some observers in Beijing have interpreted Bo's anti-mafia campaign as an insult to Bo's predecessors in Chongqing, Wang Yang, who can now be criticized for his tolerance towards organized crime. In order to reform the local police service, whose police chief was arrested for mafia connections, Bo brought in a police chief that he had employed as governor of Liaoning, Wang Lijun. The appointment of a police chief seen as a Bo loyalist led to rumors that Bo was intent on importing more of his old colleagues from Liaoning to run Chongqing.
"Red Songs"
Prior to the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China
The 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China took place on October 1, 2009. A military parade involving 10,000 troops and the display of many high-tech weapons was held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and various celebrations were conducted all over the country...
celebrations, Bo sent out "red text messages" to the city's 13 million cellphone users. According to Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency
The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
, Bo's text messages are usually quotes from Mao's Little Red Book, and include phrases such as "I like how Chairman Mao puts it: The world is ours, we will all have to work together", and "responsibility and seriousness can conquer the world, and the Chinese Communist Party members represent these qualities." Bo and his team of municipal administrators also raised new Mao statues in Chongqing, while providing 'social security apartments' to the city's needy. Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation characterized this as an example of the revival of Maoism in the Chinese Communist ethos.
In 2011, Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai and the city's Media Department initiated a 'Red Songs campaign' that demanded every district, government departments and commercial corporations, universities and schools, state radio and TV stations to begin singing "red songs", praising the achievements of the Communist Party of China and PRC. Bo pledged to reinvigorate the city with the Marxist ideals of his father's comrade-in-arms Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
; although academic Ding Xueliang of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is a public university located in Hong Kong. Established in 1991 under Hong Kong Law Chapter 1141 , it is one of the nine universities in Hong Kong.Professor Tony F. Chan is the president of HKUST...
suspected the campaign's aim was to further his political standing within the country's leadership.
Political future
Bo has made no secret of his desire to enter the nine-member Politburo Standing CommitteePolitburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China
The Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Communist Party of China, whose membership varies between 5 and 9 people. The inner workings of the PSC are not well known, although it is believed that decisions of the PSC are...
during the next Party Congress
National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a party congress that is held about once every five years. The National Congress is theoretically the highest body within the Communist Party of China, but in practice important decisions are made before the meeting. Since 1987 the National...
, in 2012. At the Party Congress in 2012, current General Secretary Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
is expected to be replaced by Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping is a high ranking politician of the People's Republic of China. He currently serves as the top-ranking member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China, the country's Vice President, Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission, President of the Central Party School and the...
, and Premier Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
will likely be replaced by Vice Premier Li Keqiang
Li Keqiang
Li Keqiang is the First-ranking Vice-Premier and deputy Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, the seventh ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the People's Republic of China's de facto highest decision-making body...
. As many as seven of the current nine members of the Standing Committee are expected to retire, and the shift in power will leave plenty of room for the ambitious Bo to re-enter a position inside the central government in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. At the Congress, Bo's ability to gain a seat in the Standing Committee is expected to be based largely on how other high-ranking members of the CCP interpret Bo's Maoist enthusiasm, and the crime-fighting credentials that Bo has gained while serving as the Mayor of Chongqing.
Challenges to Bo's ambitions include the prominent difference between Bo's charismatic populism and the leadership style of more traditional CCP politicians best represented by Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
, "a paragon of competent, bureaucratic dullness." In spite of Bo's popularity among the public, and the "fawning" attention of the international media, China's top leaders have been reluctant to acknowledge Bo publicly, perhaps due to a discomfort over Bo's leadership style. Wary of the potential for social chaos similar to that created during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
, attributed partially to Mao's personality cult, the public images of modern Chinese leaders tend towards stoic reserve.
Bo's success in combating crime
Crime in the People's Republic of China
Crime is present in various forms in the People's Republic of China. Common forms of crime include drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, human trafficking, corruption, black marketeering, and circulation of fake currencies.-History:...
has been observed as making more senior CCP politicians look bad for not achieving equally ambitious results. Politicians who may feel that Bo's efforts weaken their own political achievements by comparison include Bo's predecessors, He Guoqiang
He Guoqiang
He Guoqiang is a high-ranking government official in the government of the People's Republic of China. Currently he is the eighth ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee, and the head of the new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection....
(now himself a member of the Standing Committee) and Wang Yang
Wang Yang
Wang Yang may refer to:*Wang Yang , Chinese politician*Wang Yang , Chinese water polo player*Jimmy Wang Yang , American-born Korean wrestler...
(now the Party leader in the high-profile province of Guangdong), who may now be criticized for tolerating the mafia-related corruption of the police and judiciary of Chongqing. Some observers believe that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao may also be criticized at some level for not implementing a similar anti-corruption campaign at the national level. Bo's ability to advance within the Party hierarchy may be challenged to the degree that other senior members of the CCP interpret Bo's ambitions as being potentially threatening to their own.
Personal life
Bo married Gu Kailai in 1986, a prominent lawyer who was the first Chinese lawyerLaw of the People's Republic of China
Law of the People's Republic of China is the legal regime of the People's Republic of China, with the separate legal traditions and systems of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau....
to have won a public case in the United States. Her father, Gu Jingsheng, a Communist revolutionary and General who led the 12.9 Movement that propelled China to unite against Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Invasion of Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 19, 1931, when Manchuria was invaded by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan immediately following the Mukden Incident...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She is also a descendant of the renowned Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
Prime Minister and Poet Fan Zhongyan
Fan Zhongyan
Fan Zhongyan , born in Wuxian , Suzhou , was a prominent politician and literary figure in Song dynasty China. He was also a strategist and educator...
.
They have one son, Bo Guagua. He was the first student from mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
to attend Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
for boys in the UK. Guagua was later accepted to Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, where in 2006 he started studying for a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
External links
- News about Bo Xilai at China Digital Times.
- Biography and recent career data at China Vitae, an online biographical database of Chinese VIPs Article on Bo Xilai at Peking UniversityPeking UniversityPeking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
's online forum Alibaba details Bo's charisma - Bo Xilai in TIME Magazine's 2010 Top 100 Influential People.