Moving to Chongqing to become its Party Chief was clearly a step up the political ladder for Bo Xilai in 2007, but one figures it must have been bittersweet for him to leave Beijing, where -- judging by this video -- he was beloved by a large number of supporters.
The above -- Bo's final speech as the Minister of Commerce -- was posted to YouTube in December 2013, but just recently tweeted out by Helen Gao. Bo would move down south to begin his stint as a member of the Central Politburo, tabbed for sure elevation into the Standing Committee... until, that is, his career and his life veered off track thanks to his wife, Gu Kailai, his former police chief, Wang Lijun, and Neil Heywood, who just had to get himself murdered.
Bo Xilai says there was love between his wife, Gu Kailai, and Wang Lijun, his former police chief -- the man who would betray him, just as she did, in her own way.
For those who just can’t get enough of the Bo family saga, China Navis has a fairly extensive collection of photos of Bo Guagua — son of Xilai and Gu Kailai — both as a young child in China and growing up overseas.
A lot of these photos you’ve already seen, like the one in which he and his friends pretend to pee on a metal gate, and his graduation photos from Harvard, but others, perhaps not. Take a look at this sampling:
Just when we thought the updates had stopped, the excitement from Bo Xilai's trial fizzled, here's Gu Kailai, wife of Bo Xilai and convicted murderer, sending everyone ABUZZ.
The above video was posted to Sina at 11:55 am and already nearly has 1 million views.
In a two-paragraph statement to the New York Times, Bo Guagua -- the son of Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai, convicted last August of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood -- said he has been denied contact with his parents for the past year and a half, and hopes his father gets a chance to defend himself at his trial that is scheduled for Thursday.
The Sunday Times, in its now-famous (or infamous) piece on Neil Heywood (still paywalled, but it's here if you want to purchase), alluded to a certain Channel 4 documentary on the man. Quote: "After a year-long investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches, based on numerous conversations with friends, business colleagues, diplomatic sources and a Chinese contact who knew both Heywood and the Bo family intimately, we can reveal the real Neil Heywood."
In a 3,600-word piece, Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy of Britain’s The Sunday Times lay bare the myth of Neil Heywood. They argue that far from being an intrepid power broker living astutely within the inner circles of China’s elite, the murdered Briton was a “failed businessman,” a “chancer,” an “irritant,” and a liar who... Read more »
Neil Heywood was likely feeding information to British intelligence officers while in the inner circle of Bo Xilai, according to Jeremy Page of the Wall Street Journal. From the very beginning of this saga, we’ve known that Heywood — poisoned by Gu Kailai, as the consensus goes — has been connected to MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service,... Read more »
The “open trial” of Wang Lijun, on charges of bribe-taking and “bending the law for selfish ends,” according to Xinhua, began this morning. It is now over, having taken place “under tight security before a carefully selected audience,” according to the Guardian, from which the above picture is taken. “Foreign journalists were not permitted to... Read more »
In the most non-suspenseful verdict ever, a court in Hefei, Anhui province (read: the Party) has officially sentenced Gu Kailai to “death with a two-year reprieve” for murdering Neil Heywood, as expected. What this means is that Gu will not be put to death, assuming she doesn’t commit another crime in the next two years.... Read more »
