Communist leader’s wife linked to death
BEIJING — Bo Xilai, the sharp-dressed Communist leader who teamed with a tough police chief to smash the gangsters that controlled the mega-city of Chongqing, has been stripped of power and his wife accused of murder.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported the news Tuesday, just weeks after Bo disappeared from the public eye after being relieved of duties in the southwestern city.
Xinhua reported that Bo, 62, has been suspended from the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee and its powerful 25-member Politburo. The son of a Maoist-era revolutionary, Bo is under investigation for “serious discipline violations.”
Meanwhile, Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, and family aide Zhang Xiaojun have been transferred to judicial authorities as suspects in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood, Xinhua said.
Heywood was found dead Nov. 15 in a Chongqing hotel room. Chinese officials had initially said he died from excessive drinking.
Heywood, a consultant based in China for 10 years, had business dealings with Gu Kailai. Xinhua reported Tuesday that “they had conflict over economic interests, which had been intensified.”
Bo’s star crashed when his police chief, Wang Lijun, made an apparent asylum bid in February at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, casting a shadow over preparations for the once-a-decade handover of power this fall to a new lineup of leaders. Until then, he was set to join the nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo, the top decision-making body in China.
Xinhua confirmed that the police investigation began after Wang reported Heywood’s death. The British government had not initially sought a re-investigation into the death.
Bo’s anti-mafia campaign came under fire after allegations that illegal methods and torture were used to break organized crime. And his revival of leftist agitprop from the days of the creator of the Communist state, Mao Zedong, was disliked by some party members.
On Tuesday, the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, portrayed Bo’s downfall as an example of the rule of law in China. Some observers, including Beijing human rights activist Ni Yulan, disagreed, pointing out that Chinese authorities abuse the law to silence dissent.
Also on Tuesday, Ni, who was left paralyzed after police torture, was sentenced to two years and eight months for “creating a disturbance” and “fraud.”
With Ni’s sentencing, “the Chinese government tells the world defiantly that it has nothing but disdain for human rights and that it treats its international and constitutional obligations merely as decorations,” said Renee Xia, international director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Hong Kong-based rights group.