US Watchful and China's Rumor Mill: WSJ

choi

(1) Jeremy Page,
Brian Spegele and Andrew Browne, China Drama Now a Murder Mystery; Beijing strips B o Xilai of party posts; Wife held on death of UK Businessman. Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2012 (front page).

Quote:

(a) "On Tuesday [Apr 10], Bo Guagua was believed to be in his Cambridge, Mass, apartment in a seven-story apartment building, which has a fitness room, sun deck and doorman. He didn't reply to messages seeking comment.

"The US State Department publicly declined Tuesday to comment on Mr Bo. But, in private, senior US officials said the case has been closely scrutinized at the highest levels of the White House and the State Department. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is said to be studying intelligence reports.

"American officials briefed on the incident {Wang Lijun's flight] said there was little serious thought of giving the Chinese official political asylum. * * * These officials said Mr Wang was viewed as an 'enforcer,' rather than a whistle blower or political activist.

"These US officials said the State Department told Mr Wang it would be months before the US could decide whether to grant political asylum. As a result, the police chief decided to leave the consulate on his own following his 30-hour stay.

(c) "It is highly unusual for such cases [China's power struggle] to include family members, as well as foreigners, not to mention suspicions of homicide.

(d) "Until recently, these analysts [reporters do not say who they are or about their nationality] say, Mr Bo's supporters were fighting a rear-guard action to let him down gently.

(e) "'The big step here is they [China's top leader] have decided to rip off the Band-Aid and stop dancing around how they are going to resolve the situation,' said Christopher K Johnson, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former China analyst with the CIA.

My comment:
(a) real guard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear_guard
(b) There is no need to read the rest of the report.


(2) Josh Chin, ‘Goodbye Everybody’: Social Media Censors Battle the Bo Xilai Deluge. China Real Time Report, Apr 11, 2012.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealti ... he-bo-xilai-deluge/

Quote:

"The online community had originally expected an announcement on Mr. Bo to be made on CCTV’s 7 pm broadcast, but the primetime program came and went without the news, giving ammunition to those deploring online rumor-mongering.

"But the rumor mill was soon grinding away again as various Communist Party members began reporting on microblogging sites that they had been summoned to attend urgent meetings at 9 pm, with some even posting photos of the meetings.

"'The CCTV report proves one thing,' one Weibo user writing under the name Li Hongwen quipped after the 11 p.m. broadcast reported the news about Mr. Bo and his wife. 'Rumor means truth.'

My comment: This report is published, in its entirety, today on WSJ (US edition) under the title "Censors Work Overtime as Bo News Draw Big Response in China's Web"--as the sidebar to (1).