LI Wangzhi Speaks Out + Heywood No Spy + Beijing's Talking Points

choi

The first three are online: latest first. The next three are in print today.

(1) Peter Hirschberg, Son of Bo Xilai Says Father’s Ouster ‘Destroyed My Life.’ Bloomberg, Apr 26, 2012 (10 minutes ago)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/20 ... royed-my-life-.html
(paragraph 1: "Li Wangzhi, the eldest son of ousted Politburo member Bo Xilai, rejected suggestions he used his father’s position for personal gain and said the downfall of a man he hasn’t seen in five years had destroyed his life")

(2) It was reported ninety minutes ago that UK Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that Mr Neil Heywood was not a spy.

(3) Beijing's talking points backfire: Western journalists do not bite.

Hannah Beech, The Bo Xilai Rumor Mill: Is There a Method Behind the Wild Speculation?  Times, Apr 26, 2012 (blog).
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com ... ation/?iid=tsmodule

(4) Jonathan Ansfield and Ian Johnson, Fall of Chinese Official Is Tied to Wiretapping Of His Fellow Leaders. New York Times, Apr 26, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/2 ... hina-officials.html

(5) andrew Jacobs and Edward Wong, Disgraced Chinese Official’s Son Tries to Defuse Sports Car Scandal. New York Times, Apr 26, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/2 ... ts-car-scandal.html

My comment:
(a) One may read second half only (the first half is about what we know already), starting with the clause "In an e-mail exchange on Wednesday, Abby Huntsman Livingston, a daughter of the former ambassador in question, Jon M Huntsman Jr."

The surname Livingson suggest Abby is married.
(b) The last paragraph of the report, about mere two seats in a Ferrari, is to counter the penultimate paragraph, where one bloger suggested that a chauffeur was driving Mr Bo Guagua and Ms Mary Ann Huntsman.

(6) Timothy Garton Ash, A Princeling's Fall in China; The scandal surrounding politician Bo Xilai and the death of a British citizen could have the unintended consequence of bringing reforms.Los Angeles Times, Apr 26, 2012 (op-ed).
http://www.latimes.com/news/opin ... a-politics-20120426,0,22833.story

Two consecutive paragraphs:

"What I find so striking on this visit is that I hear such sentiments [that China neesds further economic, legal and also political reforms] not just among liberal academics, free-market economists, think tankers, writers and students, but also in unexpected places, including the Communist Party's Central Party School and even the party-state television mouthpiece CCTV.

"But don't bet on major reform actually coming through. The counter-forces of caution, consensus and vested interests are massive, both because of the way political families and clans combine political and economic power, as the Bos exemplified, and because former leaders such as Jiang Zemin (and soon Hu Jintao) will remain very influential behind the Bamboo Curtain. But the fallout from the affair will surely increase the pressure on the party leadership to do something decisive, both to restore its own tarnished reputation and to deliver more of what most Chinese might regard as progress.

My comment:
(a) Robert Ludlum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ludlum
(1927-2001; an American author of 23 thriller novels; The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies)
(b) At the end of the essay is an introduction to the author: "Timothy Garton Ash is professor of European studies at Oxford University, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the author, most recently, of 'Facts Are Subversive.'"
(c) There is no need to read the text, besides the quotation.