BO Xilai's Record Is Pro-Business (Read: Not Leftist), Despite His Rhetoric

choi

(1) Models of development | Chongqing Rolls on. A city’s deposed leader had tried to be different. But was he?  Economist, Apr 28, 2012.
http://www.economist.com/node/21553495

Quote:

"As one foreign businessman put it, Mr Bo would 'signal left but turn right.' * * * Take, for example, his much-touted admiration for SOEs. * * * Mr Huang [Qifan], the mayor, has boasted of a sixfold increase in the net value of state assets in Chongqing between 2003 and 2009. But the private sector has grown vigorously too. Its share of Chongqing’s GDP rose from about half in 2005 to more than 60% five years later, roughly the same as the national level. * * * Officials say this [leaning on SOEs to disgorge more of their whopping profits] has enabled Chongqing to keep its business tax at 15%, compared with 25% elsewhere, and spend more on 'people’s livelihood.'

"But Chongqing's spending[/debt] is nothing unique. China is littered with wasteful 'image projects' built by local chiefs. * * * The scheme's shortcomings are obvious in Chongqing, just they are elsewhere.

"Mr Bo may have talked like a leftist, but his tactics for getting work done fast and keeping money rolling in would be familiar across much of China. He has bent over backward to court foreign investors. He offended his leftist allies by approving a multi-billion dollar chemical project involving BASF, a German firm. * * * In the end, in a party that prides itself on consensual, colourless leadership, it was Mr Bo's highly visible efforts to boost his public image that hastened his undoing.

(2) Te-Ping Chen, Bo Xilai Books Boom in Hong Kong. China Real Time, May 2, 2012.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealti ... -boom-in-hong-kong/

Quote:

"At least 12 prominently displayed books are devoted to Mr Bo

"there’s too much repetition among books, and much of the content is stale. Still, that doesn’t stop mainland customers from loading up with reading material. * * * The banned books’ readers 'are all from the mainland'

(3) Chen Chenchen, New York Times Dips Into Rumor Mill. Global Times, Apr 29, 2012 (op-ed/view point).
http://www.globaltimes.cn/OPED/ViewPoints.aspx