Bo Xilai heads for trial: expelled from the Chinese Parliament
Beijing (AsiaNews
/ Agencies) - The National People's Congress has removed Bo Xilai, former party
secretary of Chingqing, from his position as deputy. With
this move, the politician loses his immunity and shall be prosecuted for his
involvement in the scandal linked to the murder of British entrepreneur Neil
Heywood and a series of bribes. So
far, the only people convicted of such offenses are Bo's wife and his former
right-hand man. Significantly,
the decision of the Chinese Parliament comes little more than a week ahead of
the 18th Party Congress, which opens on November 8 and will see the transition
of power from the Fourth to the Fifth Generation.
By
the end of September, the Chinese Communist Party had decided to
expel the "prince", stating that Bo "has abused his powers
of office, committed serious errors and carries the major responsibility of
this episode. His actions
have created serious repercussions and have damaged the reputation of the Party
and the State. "
In
what many consider the greatest scandal ever experienced by the Chinese
leadership over the past 30 years, for a long time Bo was "only" a
shadow behind his wife Kailai Gu and Wang Lijun, former police chief of
Chongqing. According
to the reconstruction of the murder, Wang discovered the poisoning of the
British entrepreneur by Gu: at first,
the man concealed the evidence of the murder, and then disclosed it to Bo. In response,
he was beaten. The
former police chief escaped by hiding in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, where
he applied for asylum. No
longer able to ignore it, the leadership arrested Wang and Gu Kailai, forcing
Bo to resign from his post as secretary.
In
August, Gu Kailai was sentenced
to the death penalty (suspended for two years, ed.) In
September, Wang was tried and sentenced to 15 years.
The
fall of Bo Xilai is part of the political reshuffling that is reshaping
communist politics by opposing factions of leadership. November
8, the opening of the 18th General Congress of the Party, will mark the end of
the government of Hu Jintao and the birth of the "fifth generation"
of leaders led by Xi Jinping, the current vice president. Due
to his policies of populism, statism and Maoist revival, Bo was about to enter
the Politburo Standing Committee, the 9 members (which will be reduced to 7) who
- in fact - rule the country.
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