|
One week later Bo was gone, sacked as Chongqing's leader after being publicly rebuked by Premier Wen Jiabao at a nationally televised news conference. Bo rubbed many in the leadership wrong with his flair for self-promotion and willingness to deviate from party consensus. Zhou has been less controversial, although his support for Bo even when he was out of favor could be seen as a violation of party discipline. Bo's removal has fueled cynicism among ordinary Chinese, leading to a flood of rumors and speculation
-- much of it online -- about political feuding among the leaders and even attempted coups. Taking down Zhou would only reinforce such views, said Joseph Cheng, who heads the Contemporary China Research Center at the City University of Hong Kong. "It furthers the perception that all cadres are corrupt and all corruption investigations are political," said Cheng, who believes Hu would prefer to sidestep further conflict by allowing Zhou to retire after this fall's party congress as originally expected.
While the speculation about Zhou simmers, other reports point to numerous detentions of Bo associates, either over corruption or in connection with the death of Heywood, whose once warm personal and business relationship with Gu and her son Bo Guagua had recently turned sour. Targets in the probe reportedly include Xu Ming, multimillionaire chairman of the Dalian Shide Group and a Bo confidante, and Xia Zeliang, head of Chongqing's Nan'an district, where Heywood was found dead. Both men have dropped from sight since Bo came under investigation. Meanwhile, the fate of the man who triggered the scandal remains a mystery. The scandal was set in motion when Chongqing ex-police chief Wang Lijun visited a U.S. Consulate in the city of Chengdu, leading the British government to later request a new investigation into Heywood's death, which had originally been attributed to excess drinking or a heart attack. Wang was Bo's former right-hand man in a campaign to crush Chongqing crime gangs, but he is believed to have enraged Bo by telling him of his suspicions about Gu's involvement in the Heywood case. After leaving the consulate Feb. 7, Wang was taken to Beijing by investigators and there have been no official statements on him since. The U.S. has repeatedly refused to discuss anything that was said or done during his overnight stay. The whereabouts of Bo's son, Guagua, a 24-year-old Harvard graduate student, also are unknown.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor