Bo Xilai’s ongoing list of crimes
When we last left off with Bo Xilai, he and his family were in a spot of trouble for myriad crimes and misdemeanors in Chongqing, including the possible poisoning of a British national. According to this New York Times story by Jonathan Ansfield and Ian Johnson, however, that’s just the beginning of Bo’s crimes: When ...
When we last left off with Bo Xilai, he and his family were in a spot of trouble for myriad crimes and misdemeanors in Chongqing, including the possible poisoning of a British national. According to this New York Times story by Jonathan Ansfield and Ian Johnson, however, that's just the beginning of Bo's crimes:
When we last left off with Bo Xilai, he and his family were in a spot of trouble for myriad crimes and misdemeanors in Chongqing, including the possible poisoning of a British national. According to this New York Times story by Jonathan Ansfield and Ian Johnson, however, that’s just the beginning of Bo’s crimes:
When Hu Jintao, China’s top leader, picked up the telephone last August to talk to a senior anticorruption official visiting Chongqing, special devices detected that he was being wiretapped — by local officials in that southwestern metropolis.
The discovery of that and other wiretapping led to an official investigation that helped topple Chongqing’s charismatic leader, Bo Xilai, in a political cataclysm that has yet to reach a conclusion.
Until now, the downfall of Mr. Bo has been cast largely as a tale of a populist who pursued his own agenda too aggressively for some top leaders in Beijing and was brought down by accusations that his wife had arranged the murder of Neil Heywood, a British consultant, after a business dispute. But the hidden wiretapping, previously alluded to only in internal Communist Party accounts of the scandal, appears to have provided another compelling reason for party leaders to turn on Mr. Bo.
This is both interesting and unsurprising. The leadership in Beijing has every incentive to tar and feather Bo to ensure that his residual popularity in Chongqing does not lead to a revival in his power. It’s now gotten to the point where Bo’s son had to issue a statement to the Harvard Crimson in an attempt to shed the image of being a spoiled princeling driving around in a red Ferrari. I don’t doubt the wiretapping story, but let’s face it, Beijing’s ruling cliques are going to have an incentive to… let’s say embellish Bo’s perfidy.
And we here at Foreign Policy want to help!!
At this point, the accusations being hurled at Bo Xilai, his wife, and his son are flying so fast and furious that the hashtag #BoXilaicrimes is now rising on Twitter. Look at the list yourself — here are my faves so far:
RT
@parrav: Guess who’s the final cylon?#BoXilaiCrimesRT
@blakehounshell: Shot the deputy#BoXilaicrimesRT
@kensofer: Created Jar Jar Binks.#BoXilaicrimesRT @_dpress Tore Jeremy Lin’s meniscus
#BoXilaicrimesRT
@HayesBrown: Cancelled Firefly.#BoXilaiCrimesRT
@NeilBhatiya: Designed the new Gmail#BoXilaicrimes
RT @Seagalla designed the high-speed rail signaling system.
#BoXilaiCrimes
And, my own contribution:
RT
@dandrezner: Made sure the cast of "Girls" consisted only of princelings.#BoXilaicrimes
So… the hard-working staff here at Foreign Policy encourage you to contribute to the #BoXilaicrimes meme. Think of the most annoying things you have had to process recently — and then blame them on Bo! It’s easy and fun.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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