Bo Repercussion

choi

My comment: There is no need to read the rest of any below.

(1) Tanier Branigan, Bo Xilai: Downfall of a Neo-Maoist Party Boss Who Got Things Done; The 'princeling' son of a Communist veteran Bo Xilai was a risk-taker in a profoundly cautious system. Guardian, Mar 30, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ ... ofile?newsfeed=true
("'A lot of people talk about Chongqing singing red songs very actively. Why don't they also talk about it actively bringing in foreign capital? In 2007 [when Bo arrived], foreign investment was $1bn. Every year in the last few years it has doubled. In 2011 it was $11bn,' he [Su Wei, an academic who co-authored a book on the "Chongqing model"] said.

(2) Tom Lasseter, Bo Xilai's Fall Raises Questions About Chinese Politics. McClatchy, Mar 30, 2012.
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/0 ... ises-questions.html

Quote:

"the nation's rulers insist that the party remain the unquestionably dominant force over the government and anything that resembles political speech * * * The accompanying lack of political flexibility, however, makes it difficult to address public grievances in a large-scale manner, leaving issues such as corruption or abuse to fester. The result has been a central leadership that speaks frequently about change of one stripe or the other but that, so far, continues to rely on authoritarian tactics to enforce its will. In that top-down structure, local officials are left largely beyond the law.

"There's little question that any leader would have faced trouble trying to sort out Chongqing. The greater municipality was carved out of neighboring Sichuan province in 1997, creating a tract of land roughly the size of South Carolina, with 30 million people, centered on a city with a reputation for corruption and organized crime.

"More than 30 years later [after China opened up], the formerly impoverished nation of peasants is a world leader. Nonetheless, its core governing structure still resembles that of Maoist China, though ruled by consensus of a small group and not just the whims of a dictator.

"Whether motivated by ideology or calculated political opportunism — for all the talk about Maoist doctrine, Chongqing is home to a Louis Vuitton boutique and a Porsche dealership — Bo's efforts for years met with approval from many of China's senior leaders.

(3) Chinese Journalist, a Bo Xilai Critic, Reportedly Jailed. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mar 30, 2012.
http://www.cpj.org/2012/03/chine ... reportedly-jail.php
("An online appeal for Gao Yingpu, described as a professional journalist who has worked for publications such as the Guangdong-based Asia Pacific Economic Times newspaper, was published online in China on March 23, according to the US government-funded Voice of America. The appeal said Gao was sentenced in a secret trial in 2010 to a three-year prison term for criticizing disgraced Chongqing city Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai")

(4) Rewriting the rules  | The Political Battle Following Bo Xilai’s Demise Will Define China’s Future. Economist, Mar 31, 2012.
http://www.economist.com/node/21551508

Quote:

"BY THE normal script of Communist Party purges, the dismissal of Chongqing’s party chief, Bo Xilai, on March 15th should have been followed by an uneasy silence while the nation awaited the inevitable denunciations. Instead the murky case of the ambitious politician has stoked a long-simmering debate about the future of the country’s economic and political reforms. Mr Bo’s supporters seem unbowed. Internet users are defying censors with gossip about the fierce struggle for power many believe is under way. The rules of Chinese politics are being rewritten.

"Many Chinese see the present binary tussle as what Chairman Mao would have termed a “two-line struggle” over China’s future. It is not clear to what extent Mr Bo’s original aims in Chongqing were ideologically motivated, or whether he was just an opportunist looking for an issue as a springboard to greater power. But Mr Bo’s 'Chongqing model' of governance has laid bare deep divisions [not just at the top of the party and nation, but throughout China].

"The resilience of Mr Bo’s supporters has been particularly striking. For a few days after his removal, some leftist websites went curiously silent. But they soon revived, with guns blazing. Every day sees fresh commentaries heaping praise on their hero and oozing thinly veiled contempt for Mr Wen. One article on Utopia, a website much loved by diehard Maoists in China, called on the army to take a clear stand against 'treacherous running dogs'—a term often used in such articles to describe reformists. On March 24th a group of 100 or so Utopia fans attended a lecture in the southern city of Kunming given by a well-known academic, Han Deqiang, on the Chongqing model. The model, he told them, rejects the idea of a 'universal' principle of democracy and upholds instead “democracy of the masses”. Liberals have been equally active.