Chinese media bills Bo's trial as 'blockbuster'

Beijing On the eve of disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai's "open trial", the media here stepped up its coverage of the case portraying it as a "blockbuster" event amid speculation that his jailed wife may testify against him. Bo's trial which is billed as the biggest since 1981 trial of "Gang of Four" that was led by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, is the at the centre of media's attention. State-run CCTV focussed on the rise and fall of 64-year-old leader, who like Jiang, toyed with the idea of reviving Mao's hardline Marxist ideology.

While the main charge against Bo was abuse of power when he was the Chief of Chongqing city before he was sacked last year, the official media portrayed the case as one against corruption in high places and the new leadership's resolve to curb it. The case of corruption involved USD 45.1 million, according to the state media. He was also accused of immoral activities. CCTV quoted an unnamed official as saying that Bo's wife Gu Kailai may testify against him which could make his case in the public perception very strong.

Anticipating this, Bo's son Bo Guagua, who is studying in US appealed to the Chinese government not use his future and security as "barter" to make his mother Gu, serving a suspended death sentence, to testify against his father. "It has been 18 months since I have been denied contact with either my father or my mother. I can only surmise the conditions of their clandestine detention and the adversity they each endure in solitude," he had said in a statement to the New York Times. "I hope that in my father's upcoming trial, he is granted the opportunity to answer his critics and defend himself without constraints of any kind," he had said. "However, if my well-being has been bartered for my father's acquiescence or my mother's further co-operation, then the verdict will clearly carry no moral weight," he told the paper, sparking speculation that Gu is being persuaded to speak against her husband during the trial which would be held in Jinan in Shandong province.