Bo Xilai
Bo Xilai 薄熙来 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| CPC Chongqing Committee Secretary | |
| Assumed office 2007 | |
| Deputy | Wang Hongju (Mayor) |
| Preceded by | Wang Yang |
| Minister of Commerce of the PRC | |
| In office February 2004 – December 2007 | |
| Premier | Wen Jiabao |
| Preceded by | Lü Fuyuan |
| Succeeded by | Chen Deming |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 1949 (age 74–75) Beijing |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
| Spouse | Gu Kailai (谷开来) |
| Relations | Bo Yibo (father) |
| Children | Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜) |
| Alma mater | Peking University Chinese Academy of Social Sciences |
Bo Xilai (simplified Chinese: 薄熙来; traditional Chinese: 薄熙來; pinyin: Bó Xīlái; born July 1949) is the current 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, a Communist revolutionary elder, 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, as well as 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.
Early life
Bo Xilai was born in Beijing, the son of Bo Yibo, one of the Eight Elders of Communist Party of China. Bo joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 1980.
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.[1]
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.
Work in Liaoning
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 nepotism by transferring to one of the most underdeveloped counties in China and starting at the very bottom of the political hierarchy.[citation needed] 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 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".[2]
Corruption Allegations
A major political corruption 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".[3]
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. [3]
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.[3] He and his wife and child later emigrated to Canada as refugees.[4]
Minister of Commerce
Hu Jintao 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,[5] 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 Congress 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.
Organized Crime
Bo's tenure in Chongqing was dominated by a protracted war against the city's organized crime scene. Since June 2009, some 2,000 people were detained in a sweeping campaign against gangsters in the city.[6] 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.[6] Wen Qiang (文强), 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 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.[7]
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.[8] 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.[5] 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.[9] 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.[5]
"Red Songs"
Prior to the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China celebrations, Bo sent out "red text messages" (Chinese: 红色短信) to the city's 13 million cellphone users.[10] 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",[11] and "responsibility and seriousness can conquer the world, and the Chinese Communist Party members represent these qualities."[8] Bo and his team of municipal administrators also raised new Mao statues in Chongqing, while providing 'social security apartments' to the city's needy.[12] Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation characterized this as an example of the revival of Maoism in the Chinese Communist ethos.[12]
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 said the aim was "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.[13][14][15][16]
Political future
Bo has made no secret of his desire to enter the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee during the next Party Congress, in 2012. At the Party Congress in 2012, current President Hu Jintao is expected to be replaced by Xi Jinping, and Premier Wen Jiabao will likely be replaced by Vice Premier Li Keqiang.[8] As many as seven of the current nine members of the Standing Committee are expected to retire,[5] 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.[8]
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.[5]
Bo's success in combating crime has been observed as making more senior CCP politicians look bad for not achieving equally ambitions 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.[5]
Personal life
Bo married Gu Kailai in 1986, a prominent lawyer who was the first Chinese lawyer to have won a public case in the United States.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
They have one son, Bo Guagua. He was the first student from mainland China to attend Harrow School for boys in the UK.[citation needed] Guagua was later accepted to Balliol College, Oxford, where in 2006 he started studying for a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.[citation needed]
Reference
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- ^ 星岛环球网 中共接班群之一薄熙来的政治动向 2008-11-27
- ^ Jiang's Clique: Low Public Opinion" 2003/12/17
- ^ a b c Pan, Philip P. "China Releases Investigative Reporter Whose Jailing Had Upset U.S.". The Washington Post. January 4, 2006. Retrieved on April 2, 2011.
- ^ Earp, Madeline. "A Twisting Road to Canada for a Chinese Journalist". CPJ Blog. The Committee to Protect Journalists. February 9, 2009. Retrieved on May 22, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f Ewing, Kent. (2010, Match 19). "Bo Xilai: China's Brash Populist". Asia Times Online. Asia Times Online (Holdings). Retrieved on June 16, 2011.
- ^ a b "China's other face: The red and the black". The Economist. 01-10-2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Willy Lam (04-11-2009). "Chongqing's Mafias Expose Grave Woes in China's Legal Apparatus" (PDF). Jamestown Foundation.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d Ewing, Kent. (2011, June 4). "Mao's Army on the Attack". Asia Times Online. Asia Times Online (Holdings). Retrieved on June 16, 2011.
- ^ Sisci, Francesco. (2011, April 20). "Bo Xilai Focuses Multiparty Vision". Asia Times Online. Asia Times Online (Holdings). Retrieved on July 16, 2011.
- ^ http://pl.cqnews.net/sz/200908/t20090831_3551716.htm
- ^ “红色短信”要有“百姓情结” 2009年05月04日 光明日报
- ^ a b Lam, Willy (2010-04-29). "Chinese Leaders Revive Marxist Orthodoxy" (PDF). The Jamestown Foundation: China Brief. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
- ^ Chinese city of 30m ordered to sing 'red songs' April 20, 2011
- ^ 重庆要求组织干部群众集中传唱《走向复兴》等36首红歌 2011-04-20
- ^ 'Red Songs' fuels Chinese politician's ambitions Published March 03, 2011, foxnews.com/Associated Press
- ^ Chongqing orders citizens to sing 'red songs' Agence France-Presse Apr 20, 2011
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
- Template:Zh icon Article on Bo Xilai at Peking University's online forum
- Template:Zh icon Alibaba details Bo's charisma
- Bo Xilai in TIME Magazine's 2010 Top 100 Influential People.