Bo Xilai (; born 3 July 1949) is a Chinese former politician who was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges. He came to prominence through his tenures as Mayor of Dalian and then Governor of Liaoning. From 2004 to 2007, he served as Minister of Commerce. Between 2007 and 2012, he served as a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Party Secretary of Chongqing, a direct-administered municipality under the central government.

The son of former Chinese Vice Premier Bo Yibo, he was regarded as a princeling but cultivated a casual and charismatic public image, marking a notable departure from Chinese political convention. In Chongqing, Bo increased spending on welfare programs and maintained consistent double-digit GDP growth, while launching a crackdown on organized crime and promoting Cultural Revolution–style "red culture." His "Chongqing model" gained popularity among the Chinese New Left, composed of both Maoists and social democrats disillusioned with the country's opening up policy and increasing economic inequality. However, his lawless campaigns, rising personality cult, and the dissonance between his family life and egalitarian rhetoric made him a controversial figure.

Bo was considered a likely candidate for promotion to the CCP Politburo Standing Committee at the 18th Party Congress in 2012. However, his political fortunes came to an abrupt end following the Wang Lijun incident, in which his top lieutenant and police chief sought asylum at the American consulate in Chengdu. Wang claimed to have information about the involvement of Bo's wife Gu Kailai in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, a confidant of the Bo family. In the fallout, Bo was stripped of his positions and expelled from the party. In 2013, Bo was found guilty of corruption, stripped of all his assets and sentenced to life imprisonment at Qincheng Prison.

Family background

Bo Xilai's father was the Communist revolutionary Bo Yibo, one of the Eight Great Eminent Officials, who served as Minister of Finance in the early years of the People's Republic of China but who fell from favor in 1965 for supporting more open trade relations with the West. Bo Xilai's mother, Hu Ming, was abducted by Red Guards in Guangzhou, and was either beaten to death or committed suicide.

Bo Yibo had seven children. Aside from his eldest daughter, Bo Xiying, born to his first wife, Li Ruming, the rest were born to his second wife, Hu Ming. They are: eldest son Bo Xiyong, second son Bo Xilai, third son Bo Xicheng, fourth son Bo Xining, second daughter Bo Jieying, and youngest daughter Bo Xiaoying. Except for Xiaoying, a historian at Peking University, Bo Xilai's other siblings are active in politics and business. As of 2012, reports estimated the Bo family's total assets were worth between $136 million and $160 million.

Early life

Bo Xilai was seventeen years old when the Cultural Revolution began, and at the time attended the prestigious Beijing No. 4 High School. and may have at one point denounced his father.

As the political winds of the Cultural Revolution shifted, Bo Xilai and his siblings were either imprisoned or sent to the countryside, and Bo Xilai was locked up for five years. After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, the chaos of the Cultural Revolution was officially attributed to the Gang of Four, and Bo's father was released. Bo Yibo was politically rehabilitated, and, in 1979, became vice premier. He was admitted to the Peking University when the gaokao was reinstated in 1977. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the Chinese leadership who studied engineering, Bo majored in world history. and graduated with a master's degree in 1982.

Early career

During the 1980s, the Bo family regained its political influence. Bo Yibo served successively as vice premier and vice-chairman of the Central Advisory Commission. The elder Bo came to be known as one of the "Eight Elders" or "Eight Immortals" of the Communist Party and was instrumental in the implementation of the reform and opening up in the 1980s. Although he favored more liberal economic policies, the elder Bo was politically conservative, and endorsed the use of military force against demonstrators during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

After the graduate school, Bo Xilai was assigned to Zhongnanhai,—adapted from a novel partly based on Xi Jinping, then-deputy party secretary in Zhengding County, Hebei—aspired to gain grassroots experience and credentials to climb the CCP's political ladder. Personally, Bo was engaged in a four-year legal battle to divorce his first wife, Li Danyu, which was finalized in 1984. Facing persistent complaints and petitions from Li, who jeopardized his career by publicly accusing him of having an extramarital affair with his Peking University schoolmate Gu Kailai, Bo relocated to Dalian to avoid the controversy.

Bo's tenure in Dalian was marked by the city's phenomenal transformation from a drab port city to a modern metropolis, a 'showcase' of China's rapid economic growth. In the early 1990s, Bo took some credit for the construction of the Shenyang-Dalian Expressway, China's first controlled-access freeway, winning accolades for the rapid expansion of infrastructure and for environmental work. Since Bo's time in office, Dalian became known as one of the cleanest cities in China, having won the UN Habitat Scroll of Honour Award in 1999. In addition, Bo was an advocate for free enterprise and small businesses, and successfully courted foreign investment from South Korea, Japan, and Western countries. He also had a huabiao built. In 2000, Bo was frontrunner for the post of Mayor of Shenzhen, based on his success in making Dalian the "Hong Kong of the North". However, it was suggested that Bo was too independent and outspoken for the post. The post went to Yu Youjun instead.

15th Party Congress

During the 15th Party Congress in 1997, Bo Xilai's family launched an unsuccessful campaign to secure his promotion to the Central Committee of the CCP. Although nepotism was generally frowned upon in China, Bo Yibo's ambitions for his son were well known. Bo Yibo suggested that the families of revolutionary elders should "contribute one child" to become high officials; Bo Xilai was selected as his family's "representative" over his older brother Bo Xicheng, for Xilai's superior academic credentials, which included attendance at the elite Peking University and a CASS master's degree. and was officially confirmed as governor in 2003.

The Northeast was at one time known as the "cradle of industrialization" of China. In 1980, industrial output for Liaoning alone was twice that of the Guangdong. However, the northeast was left behind amidst market reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, while Guangdong and other provinces along the South and East China Sea coasts prospered. Its economy—still largely tied to state-owned enterprises—stagnated relative to other regions, with high unemployment rates. In 2004, official media reported that foreign direct investment in Liaoning had nearly doubled since the launch in 2003 of the northeastern rejuvenation strategy.

Although Bo established a reputation as a comparatively clean politician during his tenures in Dalian and as governor of Liaoning, he was not immune to corruption allegations. In particular, Bo was the subject of critical investigative reports by Liaoning journalist Jiang Weiping, the whistleblower in the Mu and Ma corruption case in Liaoning – a scandal that Bo benefited from politically. While Bo was not directly involved in the scandal, Jiang accused Bo of providing political cover for his friends and relatives.

Yang Rong, the founder and former chief executive of China's largest automaker Brilliance China Automotive, accused Bo of interfering in his judicial proceedings in Beijing. In 2002, Bo seized Yang's stake of $700 million in Brilliance. Bo also accused Yang of embezzlement, and had an arrest warrant issued against him, precipitating Yang's flight from China in July 2002; since then Yang has been living in exile in the United States. David Kilgour, who co-wrote the Kilgour–Matas report on organ harvesting, claimed Bo may have played a role. Separately, Falun Gong practitioners abroad filed over ten lawsuits against Bo alleging torture and crimes against humanity. In 2009, a Spanish court indicted Bo Xilai and four other officials for genocide against Falun Gong based on those allegations.

16th Party Congress

At the 16th Party Congress in 2002, Bo's age, regional tenures, and patronage links fit the profile for a potential candidate to be groomed for the "5th generation of leaders" that would assume power in 2012. His chief competitors were seen as Xi Jinping, then party secretary of Zhejiang, and Li Keqiang, a populist Tuanpai candidate who was the Governor of Henan. Bo also earned a seat on the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Bo's rise from a municipal official to the central government generated great media fanfare and elevated his status to something of a "political star". Bo's political persona was considered a departure from the generally serious and conservative leadership in Beijing. With his youthful vigour, populism, and purported popularity with female reporters, Bo's political rise had been compared to that of John F. Kennedy.

Bo presided over a continued rise in foreign investment in China as Minister of Commerce. His daily schedule was dominated by receiving foreign guests and dignitaries. By the time that he became Minister, he spoke relatively fluent and colloquial English. During a meeting with American officials, Bo reputedly told a struggling interpreter to stop translating because the Chinese officials could understand English and it was wasting time. In May 2004 Bo was one of the few ministers hand-picked to accompany Premier Wen Jiabao on a five-country trip to Europe.

17th Party Congress

At the 17th Party Congress in October 2007, Bo gained a seat on the 25-member Politburo, effectively China's ruling council. He was then tipped to leave the Ministry of Commerce and take over as CCP Committee secretary of Chongqing. Bo's predecessor, political rival Wang Yang, was reassigned as party secretary of Guangdong.

At the time, Chongqing was reeling from problems such as air and water pollution, unemployment, poor public health, and complications from the Three Gorges Dam. Bo was initially reluctant to go to Chongqing and was reportedly unhappy with his new assignment. He had hoped to become vice premier instead, but Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Wu Yi argued against Bo's promotion to vice-premiership. In particular, Wu was critical of Bo's penchant for self-promotion, and Wen cited international lawsuits against Bo by Falun Gong adherents as a barrier to his holding higher office.

Bo took up the Chongqing post on 30 November, a month following the conclusion of the Congress, even though Wang Yang had vacated the position on 13 November.

Chongqing

thumb|Bo (July 2011)

The Chongqing model

Although Bo was initially unhappy about his reassignment in Chongqing, he soon resolved to use his new position as a staging ground for a return to higher national office. Bo made no secret of his desire to enter the nine-member CCP Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) during the 18th Party Congress in autumn 2012,

In Chongqing, Bo pioneered a new style of governance dubbed the "Chongqing Model" – a set of social and economic policies intended to address diverse challenges facing modern China following economic reforms. This made him the champion of the Chinese New Left, composed of both Maoists and social democrats disillusioned with the country's market-based economic reforms and increasing economic inequality. Observers noted that, in China's non-electoral political system, Bo's high-profile presence and bold political maneuvers essentially amounted to a public 'election campaign' for the top leadership.

Organized crime

Bo's tenure in Chongqing was dominated by a protracted war against organized crime and corruption known as "" (). Between 2009 and 2011, an estimated 5,700 people were arrested in the sweeping campaign that ensnared not only criminals, but also businessmen, members of the police force, judges, government officials, and political adversaries. The campaign was overseen by Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, whom Bo had worked with previously in Liaoning.

The dahei campaign earned Bo national recognition and widespread popularity in Chongqing—all the more because of the city's historical reputation as a center for criminal activity. Lawyers for the accused were intimidated and harassed, and in at least one case, sentenced to 18 months in prison. Allegations also surfaced over the use of torture to extract confessions.

Red culture movement

During his time in Chongqing, Bo initiated a series of Maoist-style campaigns to revive 'red culture' and improve public morale, known as "" (). The initiative included the promotion of Maoist quotes, 'red' songs, revolutionary television programming and operas, and initiatives to encourage students to work in the countryside, akin to the way students were required to do during the Down to the Countryside Movement of the Cultural Revolution. As part of the movement, Bo and the city's Media Department initiated a "Red Songs campaign" that demanded every district, government department, commercial enterprise, educational institution, state radio and TV stations begin singing 'red songs' praising the achievements of the Communist Party. Bo pledged to reinvigorate the city with the Marxist ideals reminiscent of the Mao era.

Prior to the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China celebrations, for instance, Bo sent out 'red text messages' to the city's 13 million mobile phone users. According to Xinhua, Bo's text messages were usually quotes from Mao's Little Red Book, and include phrases such as "I like how chairman Mao puts it: The world is ours, we will all have to work together," and "responsibility and seriousness can conquer the world, and the Chinese Communist Party members represent these qualities." Bo and his team of municipal administrators also erected new Mao statues in Chongqing, while providing 'social security apartments' to the city's less well-off. Some scholars have characterized this as an example of the revival of Maoism in the Chinese Communist ethos. Some retirees were particularly inspired and said they wanted to pass on "revolutionary spirit" to their children, while others participated as a means to praise the Communist Party for the country's economic progress.

The campaign also had many detractors. Some intellectuals and reformers criticized the campaign for being regressive, akin to "being drowned in a red sea", and bringing back painful memories from the Cultural Revolution. Several mid-level officials in the city committed suicide due to overwhelming pressure to organize events for the red songs campaign.

Social policies

A cornerstone of Bo's Chongqing model involved a series of egalitarian social policies aimed to lessen the gap between rich and poor, and ease the rural-urban divide. Bo promoted the notion of pursuing "red GDP"—an economic model embodying communist egalitarianism—and suggested that, if economic development were analogous to 'baking a cake', then the primary task should be to divide the cake fairly rather than building a larger cake.

To that end, the city reportedly spent $15.8 billion on public apartment complexes for use by recent college graduates, migrant workers and low-income residents.

Bo's approach to social policy was demonstrated during the November 2008 taxi strikes, which saw over 8,000 taxi drivers take to the streets for two days in protests over high fees, unregulated competition and rising fuel costs. Similar protests in China were frequently suppressed—sometimes forcefully—with official media sometimes blaming labour unrest on criminal instigation. Bo's government instead held a televised roundtable dialogues with the protesters and citizens, and agreed to allow the formation of a trade union. His handling of the situation earned him praise as a comparatively restrained and progressive leader.

Economic policies

Another major component of Bo's Chongqing model concerned the city's economic policies. Just as he had done in Liaoning, Bo ambitiously pursued foreign investment in the city, lowering corporate income tax rates (15% compared to the 25% national average), and sought to stimulate rapid urbanization and industrialization.

Bo's model of economic growth won national and international praise for seamlessly combining foreign investment and state-led growth. However, Bo's critics called the model of "red GDP" – subsidized infrastructure, housing and public works projects – unsustainable and a drain on the city's budget. Some civil servants complained that they were not getting salaries on time.

Leadership style

Although many of Bo's campaigns earned popular support, especially from the city's poor, his leadership style has been described as "propagandistic", "ruthless", and "arrogant" by subordinates and city officials, academics, journalists, and other professionals. Cheng Li, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, said that "Nobody really trusts [Bo]: a lot of people are scared of him, including several princelings who are supposed to be his power base." The system involved wiretaps, eavesdropping, and monitoring of internet communications, and was designed with the help of cybersecurity expert Fang Binxing, known for his pivotal role in the construction of China's Great Firewall. One source connected to the Chinese leadership said that Bo tried to monitor nearly all central leaders who had visited Chongqing to better understand what they thought of him.

Heywood, a businessman and fixer for Western companies in China, was first introduced to the Bo family in 2004, Bo Guagua's third year at Harrow School, as the only alumnus living in Dalian. Even though it was confirmed that Fido Vivien-May, a volunteer at Royal British Legion whom Gu Kailai had met through Bo Guagua's language school in Bournemouth, introduced and helped Bo Guagua's application to Harrow School, after Bo Xilai's fall, it was widely misreported that Heywood helped with Bo Guagua's admission to the school, when Heywood in fact did not know them at the time.

Heywood was widely believed to be a middleman for the Bo family, helping them move and manage properties overseas, in exchange for their political influence in facilitating his business activities in China. In October 2011, Heywood reportedly had a business dispute with Gu, which escalated when Heywood threatened to reveal the family's business dealings and "destroy" Bo Guagua, who was studying in the US. Heywood was then poisoned by Gu and her aide Zhang Xiaojun.

In August 2012, Gu was convicted of the murder and receive a suspended death sentence, which was commuted to life imprisonment in 2015. Meanwhile, Zhang was sentenced to nine years' jail for acting as an accomplice in the poisoning. His sentence was reduced by a total of 26 months on three occasions—in 2014, 2015, and 2017—due to good behavior, which scheduled his release for May 2019. However, he was released earlier, at an unknown date no later than January 2018, as he joined the Bo family at a memorial event for Bo Yibo at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on January 17, 2018.

Downfall

In early 2012, Bo visited the Fourteenth Army Group, which his father had helped found in the late 1930s. The visit was alleged to have violated civil-military non-fraternization policies and was viewed by some as evidence of Bo's political ambitions. Wang was abruptly demoted on 2 February to the less powerful position of vice-mayor overseeing education, science, and environmental affairs. Bo placed Wang under surveillance, and several of his close associates were reportedly taken into custody. Some reports allege that Bo may have been plotting to have Wang assassinated.

On 6 February 2012, apparently fearing for his life, Wang traveled to the U.S. consulate in the nearby city of Chengdu, bringing evidence implicating Bo and his family in the Neil Heywood murder. Wang sought and was denied asylum in the United States. He remained in the consulate for approximately 24 hours before leaving "of his own volition" and being taken into the custody of state security officials dispatched from Beijing. Local media in Chongqing announced that Wang was on a "vacation-style medical treatment."

A day after Wang's leave, several overseas Chinese-language news websites posted an open letter allegedly penned by Wang, which sharply criticized Bo as a "hypocrite" and "the greatest gangster in China" and accused Bo of corruption. Without knowing what incriminating material Wang may have held against Bo, even Bo's supporters in China's top leadership were reluctant to vouch for him. Bo responded in an unusually open press conference during the 2012 National People's Congress, acknowledging "negligent supervision" of his subordinates, saying he may have "relied upon the wrong person".

Removal from posts

On 15 March 2012, Bo was dismissed as Chongqing party secretary and its related municipal posts, while temporarily retaining a seat on the Politburo. Due to the potentially destructive effects Bo's dismissal would have on party unity, party elders were consulted on the matter. The decision was reportedly made at a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, which Bo had been expected to gain a position on in the future, on 7 March. Secretary of the CPLC Zhou Yongkang cast a lone dissenting vote. Addressing high-level political changes by a Premier to an open public forum was unprecedented. Political observers believe that Wen's remarks and Bo's downfall represented a consensus within the central leadership that Bo not only needed to shoulder the responsibility for the Wang Lijun scandal, but also represented a political triumph for the 'liberal reformer' wing of the Communist Party.

On 10 April 2012, Bo was suspended from the CCP Central Committee and Politburo, pending investigation for "serious disciplinary violations". Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was named a prime suspect in the inquiry into the death of British businessman Neil Heywood. The announcement, carrying criminal implications, was the death knell for Bo's political career.

On 28 September 2012, the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party adopted a decision to expel him from the party. The decision was ratified by a full plenary session of the Central Committee on 4 November. He was accused of major disciplinary violations and corruption charges during his tenure in Dalian, the Ministry of Commerce and Chongqing, including in relation to the Gu Kailai case. On 26 October 2012, the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress expelled him as a deputy to the national legislature, removing his final public post and setting the stage for his trial.

Public reactions

Bo's downfall elicited strong reactions among the Chinese public and with commentators across the political spectrum. Leftist websites such as Utopia, Red China, and Maoflag were full of angry commentary over Bo's dismissal. These websites were shut down for a period of "maintenance" shortly after. Leftist commentators voiced support for Bo: Kong Qingdong called Bo's dismissal "a plot by enemies of the state"; Sima Nan said associating Bo with the Cultural Revolution was a "smear campaign"; Sima's pro-Bo microblogs were censored. The nationalist tabloid Global Times also wrote a sympathetic editorial. Liberal media reacted positively, believing Bo's style of "personality-based rule" was dangerous and regressive, and claiming his downfall signified a "correct orientation" to China's future development. The liberal Nanfang Daily Newspaper Group editor Yan Lieshan remarked that Bo correctly identified China's problems but prescribed the wrong solution. and exposing internal conflicts within the Communist Party. In the weeks following 15 March, party authorities deliberated on Bo's case. In the absence of official reports of the proceedings, microblogs churned out a flood of speculation, including rumours of a coup. In response, the authorities instructed newspapers and websites to strictly report only official releases, and arrested six people accused of "rumourmongering". Bo's downfall also affected his ally Zhou Yongkang, who had reportedly relinquished his operational control over Chinese security institutions and lost the right to influence who would succeed him at the 18th Party Congress.

Trial

In July 2013, Chinese prosecution authorities charged Bo with bribery, abuse of power and corruption, paving the way for his trial. In the build-up to the trial, Song Yangbiao, a prominent leftist supporter of Bo was detained by police after he urged people to protest against the trial. The verdict and sentence brought to close one of the most lurid political scandals in the history of China under Communist rule. A few days before the trial, Wang Xuemei, a prominent forensic scientist who was vice director of the Chinese Forensic Medicine Association and of the Supreme Court's Prosecutorial Research Center, resigned from her positions. Wang had publicly questioned the forensic evidence used in the trial of Bo's wife Gu Kailai. Defense counsel for Bo was Beijing-based DeHeng Law Offices, a corporate law firm with deep political connections to the state. The Wall Street Journal article on the law firm's role in the trial described it as acting as an "intermediary" that facilitated between Bo, his relatives and prosecutors the negotiation of "an outcome acceptable to all sides in the run-up to the trial—and to help ensure that the trial itself goes according to plan". Bo's trial also featured a testy exchange between Bo and his former lieutenant Wang Lijun, during which Bo claimed that his knowledge of Wang's crush on Gu was the real reason for Wang's defection to the U.S. consulate.

The proceedings of the trial were relayed in real time via the court's Weibo account, but parts of Bo's testimony, particularly those regarding the threats and mistreatment he experienced during the investigation and his emotional remarks about his wife, were censored. Some details omitted from the trial transcript on Weibo include Bo's testimony that he had been interrogated hundreds of times and had fainted 27 times, and that he had confessed to one bribery charge the previous year only after being warned that his wife could face the death penalty and his son, Bo Guagua, who had just graduated from Harvard University, could be issued a Red Notice and brought back to China. "I felt like there were two other lives tethered to mine," Bo said.

Eventually, at his trial, Bo recanted a series of confessions he had made during the investigation, denying all charges against him. On 22 September, the court found him guilty on all counts, including accepting bribes and abuses of power, stripped him of all his personal assets, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Aftermath

Not long after the trial, on 6 November, activist Wang Zheng established the Zhi Xian Party, which supports Communist Party rule but criticizes it failing to uphold the constitution. Bo Xilai was elected the party's "Chairman for life". Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau banned Zhi Xian Party on 2 December 2013 and Wang Zheng was arrested in 2017.

Chinese authorities attempted but failed to confiscate Bo's €6.95 million villa in Cannes, a key piece of evidence in his bribery charges, which had been purchased by Xu Ming and held by Xu's girlfriend, former CCTV host Jiang Feng Dolby, a British citizen, as an intermediary for the Bo family. The villa was sold in 2015, but the identities of both the seller and the buyer remain unknown.

After Bo's fall, Xi Jinping's accession to power resulted in a series of major political changes with significant consequences. Bo's former supporter Zhou Yongkang retired in 2012, but was caught up in Xi Jinping's anti-corruption dragnet in 2013, detained for investigation, and eventually sentenced to life in prison. In addition, Zhou was unable to select the successor to his office, possibly as a result of his role in the Bo Xilai scandal. The head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which Zhou headed, no longer held a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee following the 18th Party Congress, as the number of seats on the body were reduced from nine to seven. The anti-corruption campaign following the 18th Party Congress became the biggest of its kind in the history of China under Communist rule. By 2014, Bo had been branded by some media outlets outside of China as part of a so-called "New Gang of Four" composed of disgraced officials Zhou Yongkang, Xu Caihou, and Ling Jihua.

Bo's chief ideological rival, former Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang, went on to become Vice-Premier in 2013 and eventually joined the Politburo Standing Committee in 2017, the party's top leadership council. Wen Jiabao, who was seen as Bo's foremost critic in the top leadership, suffered significant public embarrassment himself over a New York Times article about his family's vast empire of wealth whose release coincided closely with Bo's dismissal. Huang Qifan, the mayor of Chongqing long seen as an ally of Bo, continued serving in his position as Mayor of Chongqing until his resignation in 2016. Wang Lijun was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for defection, corruption, and abuse of power.

Political alignment and affiliations

In the course of his career, Bo Xilai was the beneficiary of considerable patronage from former Communist Party general secretary Jiang Zemin. He is thus associated with Jiang's faction, sometimes referred to as the "elitists", that is generally known to favor a model that emphasizes free trade, economic development in the coastal regions, and export-led growth. It is a coalition composed largely of "princelings" (the children of high-ranking former party leaders), business people, leaders of coastal cities, and members of the erstwhile "Shanghai clique". By contrast, the "populist" coalition of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao advocated more balanced economic development and improvements to China's social safety net. The populist faction comprised rural leaders, socialist intellectuals, and several leaders who rose to prominence through their connections with the Communist Youth League. Although Bo relentlessly pursued technology, capital, and business opportunities, he also spearheaded a large number of government programs to help the working class and disadvantaged groups. He also sought to promote "red culture", and mandated the revival of Mao-era slogans and songs, evoking memories that were romantic to the conservative left, but painful to the liberal right of Chinese politics. Bo's policies put him in opposition to the more liberal and reform-oriented faction, particularly Premier Wen Jiabao and Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang, who favored the strengthening of rule of law and a continuation of political reform. To observers, Bo and Wang's verbal jousting over the future direction of development marked an increasing polarization of Chinese politics into leftist and reformer camps.

Personal life

Marriages

Bo's first wife was Li Danyu, an army surgeon and daughter of the Chinese politician Li Xuefeng. The two met in 1975, when Bo was working as a manual laborer at a factory in Beijing. They wed in September 1976 and had a son the following year, Li Wangzhi. In 1978, the gaokao was reinstated and Bo Xilai was admitted to Peking University, where Gu Kailai was also a student. In 1981 Bo asked for a divorce; Li refused but moved out of their home at Zhongnanhai. The case went to court and the divorce was completed in 1984.

Bo's second wife is Gu Kailai, a prominent lawyer. Bo and Gu were schoolmates at Peking University. Li claims that Bo had an affair with Gu at the time, but Gu states she first met Bo in Dalian in 1984. Gu and Bo married in 1986 and had a son, Bo Guagua, in 1987. Bo and Gu were criticized for using his political influence to benefit her law firm. Bo denied that his wife had profited from his position, saying that she had retired from her legal practice while the couple lived in Dalian in the 1990s. Gu left for Britain with their son in December 1999, partly out of anger after discovering Bo’s affair, and lived there for most of the following years until returning to China in 2007. There was speculation that Bo may have attempted to interfere with a corruption investigation into his wife prior to the Wang Lijun incident, which led to the downfall of the couple.

Bo and Gu's son, Bo Guagua, drew attention for his high-profile and privileged lifestyle. Both Guagua and his father repeatedly denied allegations that Guagua was the "playboy" that he was often portrayed. Asked how he could afford his son's tuition fees on his estimated annual salary of $22,000, One of Bo's best known mistresses is Zhang Weijie, a Dalian TV hostess, who disappeared in the late 1990s, sparking rumors and urban legends, including speculation that Gu murdered her after Zhang became pregnant with Bo's child. Jiang Weiping instead claimed that Zhang was forced out of Dalian by Gu and financially compensated by Wu Wenkang, Bo's secretary at the time, after which she studied at the Beijing Film Academy and eventually emigrated overseas.

Bo was romantically linked to actress Ma Xiaoqing, who had admitted in interviews prior to Bo's fall that she had been in a relationship with a high-ranking official. In 2012, an American website Boxun baselessly reported that movie star Zhang Ziyi was paid $100 million to sleep with Bo and other top Chinese officials, a claim that was widely reposted. Zhang sued Boxun in a US court for defamation. In December 2013, Boxun settled the case with Zhang and issued an apology. Zhang also sued Next Media in Hong Kong and Taiwan over the similar reports by the group's two titles, both citing Boxun. She won the case in Hong Kong but lost in Taiwan.

In the Chinese TV series Uphold Justice in America (2002), based on the book of the same name by Gu Kailai, Bo is played by Pu Cunxin.

In the American film The Laundromat (2019), Bo is played by Jesse Wang. The film is banned in China, with its Douban page removed before its release in 2019.

See also

  • Politics of Liaoning
  • Politics of Chongqing

References

  • News about Bo Xilai at China Digital Times.
  • Biography and recent career data at China Vitae, an online biographical database of Chinese VIPs
  • The Bo Xilai Crisis: A Curse or a Blessing for China?, Interview with Cheng Li (April 2012)