Latest: Two FT Drafts Cast Bo in a Different, Favorable Light

choi

My comment:
(a) Coming out minutes ago, the two drats will be published in print tomorrow, under a different set of titles--as customary of the newspaper. Still Bo's political career is said to be "finished."
(b) Sign-in is needed for the two.
(c) light (n): "a particular aspect or appearance presented to view <saw the matter in a different light>"
m-w.com

(1) Jamil Anderlini, Police Chief Turns Against Former Mentor. Financial Times (FT), Feb 14, 2012

Quote:

(a) a theory: "According to people familiar with the situation, the most convincing theory is that Mr Bo’s political rivals began an investigation into Mr Wang that prompted his mentor to cut him loose.

(b) fact: "Chinese media have reported that a former police chief and deputy mayor in the north-eastern Chinese city of Tieling was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption and embezzlement. The corpse of another former Tieling deputy mayor was found floating in a canal late last year.


(2) Jamil Anderlini, The Humbling of Bo Xilai. FT, Feb 14, 2012.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1ce9b5 ... a-00144feabdc0.html

Quote:

"A mafia-busting former police chief called Wang Lijun spent more than 24 hours last week in the US consulate in the city of Chengdu arguing that his life was at risk after a rift with Bo Xilai * * * While scores of armed Chinese police surrounded the consulate, Mr Wang pleaded for asylum in the US. When that was refused he tried to cut a bargain with senior officials in Beijing, according to insiders.

"Mr Wang eventually agreed to leave the consulate on Tuesday evening in the company of senior state security officers and Huang Qifan, Chongqing’s mayor, who came to collect him. Many of the armed police and paramilitary that surrounded the consular offices had been sent 300km from Chongqing, according to insiders, who pointed out that this was a serious breach of Chinese law and protocol.

"But analysts said the apparent lack of any rebuke from Beijing was unusual and a potentially worrying sign of serious splits within the party. 'The proper procedure would suggest Bo should have been summoned to Beijing to explain the events in Chengdu but instead he was in Yunnan, touring, among other places, the headquarters of the 14th army, a military unit set up by his father,' said Victor Shih, a US academic and expert in elite Chinese politics. 'It is highly irregular and somewhat disturbing that we haven’t seen a strong signal from the central government to show it is in control.'