Hu Jintao wants to complete
action against Bo Xilai before handing over as party chief
( September 28, 2012, Chennai,
Sri Lanka Guardian) Hu Jintao is keen to have the proceedings against Bo Xilai,
, the party boss of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, completed before
handing over as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to
his expected successor Xi Jinping.
2.The transition to Xi is to take
place at the 18th Congress of the CPC. Originally, the expectations were that
the 18th Congress would be held on October 18 , 2012, at which Hu will hand
over to Xi the leadership of the Party and a new Politburo and its Standing
Committee would take over.
3. But till September 27, there
was no announcement of the exact date of the Congress. This gave rise to
speculation that the delay was due to divergence of opinion among senior
leaders of the party as to whether the disciplinary and criminal proceedings
against Bo should be supervised by the present Politburo and its Standing
Committee headed by Hu or by the new Politburo and its Standing Committee that
will be headed by Xi with Hu having no more control over the proceedings.
4. This speculation was ended on September 28,2012, with a twin
announcement regarding the completion of the Party disciplinary proceedings
against Bo under Hu’s supervision and the proposed convening of the 18th Party
Congress on November 8 instead of on October 18 as originally expected.
5. It was announced by the
official Xinhua news agency that Bo, who had been a member of the powerful
Politburo, was stripped of his party membership and other positions held by
him. It said:
"Bo Xilai's behaviour
created serious negative consequences, seriously damaged the party and the
country's reputation in China and abroad, created an extremely negative result,
and created huge losses for the party and the Chinese people. Bo made serious
errors and he bears the major responsibility for the scandal that saw Gu Kailai
(his wife) convicted of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood after a
multi-million-dollar deal went sour. Bo seriously violated party discipline and
abused his power with regard to the Gu Kailai and Wang Lijun (his police chief)
cases, made serious errors, for which he bears the major responsibility, abused
his public position to aid others and, directly and through family members,
received huge bribes from others. Gu Kailai used Bo Xilai's public position to
win favours for others, including family members. Bo's family members received
huge financial benefits from others, and Bo had inappropriate sexual
relationships with several women."
6. The completion of the
disciplinary proceedings against him in the party and his removal from all the
positions held by him in the party set the stage for his criminal trial. The
decision to hold the 18th Party Congress from November 8 to formalise the
transition of the party leadership from Hu to Xi would enable the existing
party leadership headed by Hu to have the criminal trial completed and
judgement pronounced before Hu hands over to Xi.
7. While this would be
procedurally correct, the completion of all the proceedings under Hu’s
leadership would also ensure that the new party leadership that would take over
on November 8 would not show any leniency to Bo.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Twitter @SORBONNE75)
