Friday, 4 September 2009
Is it next stop Beijing for Bo aboard the Chongqing express?
Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, a princeling politician with a populist touch, is the biggest winner in the municipality’s war against organised crime gangs. The crackdown in the unruly southwestern municipality has won him public praise and political capital ahead of a gathering of top officials this month.
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Is it next stop Beijing for Bo aboard the Chongqing express?
Shi Jiangtao
03 September 2009
Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, a princeling politician with a populist touch, is the biggest winner in the municipality’s war against organised crime gangs. The crackdown in the unruly southwestern municipality has won him public praise and political capital ahead of a gathering of top officials this month.
The high-profile operation, which began in June, has snared more than 1,500 people, including gang bosses, billionaires, senior officials and hundreds of police officers.
People in Chongqing, and mainland media, have lavished Bo with praise for his courage in taking on the gangs, whose members colluded with police and government officials. An article posted on the website of the party mouthpiece People’s Daily even compared his campaign to that by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to wipe out bandits in the southwest 60 years ago.
“Bo has quietly spent his 60th birthday leading the high-profile battle against organised crime gangs. The public have sent him their wishes with smiling faces and warm applause,” the People’s Daily article read.
The crusade against the gangs and their protective umbrella within the municipal government is still under way, with more heads expected to roll.
Chongqing, the biggest city in China and home to 30 million people, has been a cradle for senior party and government leaders in recent years. While the crackdown has raised Bo’s profile and revealed to the public the deep-rooted corruption in Chongqing, none of the city’s top leaders, or their predecessors, have been tainted by the scandal.
Bo’s predecessor in Chongqing, Wang Yang , now the Guangdong party chief, is widely seen as a rising political star. Like Bo, Wang has a good chance of promotion before the Communist Party’s 2012 congress. Wang 54, served as Chongqing party boss from 2005 to 2007.
He Guoqiang , who now ranks eighth in the party’s hierarchy and who is in charge of its anti-corruption work, served as party chief of Chongqing between 1999 and 2002. He is now a member of the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, which rules the mainland and the party.
Given the complicated relationships between mainland officials, Bo’s war on organised crime is a bold move. He has the full backing of ordinary people in Chongqing, who had complained bitterly that the crime for which the city is notorious was spiralling out of control.
Bo pledged to tackle the problem soon after he was made party boss in late 2007. But he did not make much headway until his close allay Wang Lijun was transferred from Liaoning province in the northeast last year at Bo’s request to lead the campaign as Chongqing’s chief of police.
Wang replaced Wen Qiang , the former deputy police chief who is the biggest fish to have been caught so far.
Although it remains unclear what prompted Bo to launch the crackdown, rarely seen on the mainland, he has gained politically from its success and the nationwide media coverage it has attracted.
Its timing is intriguing; the party’s top echelon - the Central Committee - will meet soon in Beijing. The meeting is the current committee’s fourth. The fourth meeting of a Central Committee traditionally kick-starts a period of intense political jockeying in the run-up to the next major reshuffle of senior personnel in three years’ time.
Vice-President Xi Jinping is expected to be the centre of attention at the meeting. If, as expected, he is appointed a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, it would be a crucial step to consolidating his status as heir apparent to President Hu Jintao .
Like Xi, Bo is a princeling - the name given to the offspring of party elders and former state leaders. His father was Bo Yibo , one of the “eight immortals” who, led by Deng, controlled Chinese politics in the years following the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Bo trained as a journalist at the Postgraduate Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the early 1980s. But he made his name as mayor of the booming northeastern port city of Dalian in the 1990s and further raised his profile after becoming governor of Liaoning in 2001.
But his bold decision-making, and allegations he owed his stellar political career to his father’s influence also earned him criticism. It was not until he became minister of commerce in 2004 that he became a household name. His shrewd negotiating skills and charm helped him escape the shadows of corruption scandals in Liaoning.
The media-savvy Bo has escaped the fate of the many other princelings whose family connections have attracted hostile press coverage. Indeed, he is known for his close ties with domestic and overseas media.
A good example of Bo’s use of the press was his first appearance since the crackdown began - an inspection of a police station. Flanked by Wang, he reiterated his unreserved support for the officers carrying out the purge.
Bo has been a member of the Politburo since 2007, and his move to Chongqing came soon after his elevation. It was widely interpreted as a step to prepare him for a high position in the central government. Like his predecessor in Chongqing, Wang Yang, Bo is believed to have a good chance of promotion before 2012, when incumbent leaders will retire.
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