Once front-runner for presidency, Bo Xilai wins praise for anti-triad drive
By Peh Shing Huei 31 October 2009
BEIJING: Once thought to be a front-runner for China’s presidency, Mr. Bo Xilai’s best days were believed to be behind him when rival Xi Jinping was chosen by the Communist Party to be vice-president in 2007.
Mr. Bo, a former commerce minister and the son of former vice-premier and Long March veteran Bo Yibo, was instead sent to head Chongqing municipality.
Yet at age 60, the media-savvy princeling has managed to transform himself into China’s hottest political star. All it took was a wildly successful campaign against triads in the south-western municipality.
The high-profile operation has nabbed more than 1,500 people, including mob leaders, senior officials and tycoons, since June and has earned Mr. Bo praise from state media and netizens alike.
A blog post titled ‘Six reasons why Bo Xilai should be the next General Secretary’ has even been circulated online, extolling the merits of Mr. Bo as Mr. Hu Jintao’s successor as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and hence, China’s President.
The author, who went by the name of ‘Xie Bing’, called Mr. Bo a modern Justice Bao, who was a Song Dynasty magistrate famous for his fight against injustice and corruption. Xie argued that Mr. Bo has the wits and courage to tackle China’s problems and that he is more suitable than Vice-President Xi, whose late father Xi Zhongxun was also a CCP elder, to lead the party.
Meanwhile, doubts have been raised about Mr. Xi’s heir apparent status after he was not given a senior military post during a key CCP meeting last month.
Observers believed that Mr. Bo might still stand a chance, albeit a long shot, to succeed Mr. Hu in 2012.
‘Of course, Xi still has a better chance than everyone else,’ said analyst Bo Zhiyue of the East Asian Institute in Singapore. ‘But if the CCP does what it says it would do, to have intra-party democracy, then Bo’s popularity would put him in a strong contending position.’
Mr. Bo has been stealing the national limelight with his mafia-busting moves.
The People’s Daily online, the website of the CCP mouthpiece, even compared his campaign to the one by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to wipe out bandits in the south-western region 60 years ago.
‘Bo has taken on high-profile issues such as campaigns against corruption and organised crime that are bound to create popular support for him,’ said veteran China watcher June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami.
‘As long as there is no credible evidence that he has himself profited from illicit funding, being high profile gives him an advantage over any would-be rivals.’
Mr. Bo, who transformed the north-eastern port city of Dalian and the province of Liaoning from backwater regions into economic engines in the 1990s and 2000s, also impressed many when he defused a massive taxi strike last year.
He personally met the strikers and addressed their grievances. He even allowed the roundtable meeting to be telecast live on TV, radio and the Internet.
As blogger Xie wrote: ‘Among the millions of CCP officials, only Bo Xilai would dare to run onto the streets and meet strikers, make a decision on the spot and be able to persuade them instead of being beaten to death.’
But Mr. Bo’s age - he is four years older than 56-year-old Mr. Xi - could work against him. Analyst Wang Zhengxu also warned that Mr. Bo’s high profile could attract attacks from rivals in a political culture which frowns on flamboyance.
Mr. Bo seemed to have anticipated such criticisms, and has downplayed his contributions in the mafia crackdown.
In a speech on Wednesday, he insisted that Chongqing was simply following Beijing’s instructions on fighting crime. He also paid tribute to the crime-fighting records of present and past leaders, from Mr. Hu to former president Jiang Zemin.
Obviously the hottest political star is not just making all the right moves, but backing them up with all the right noises.
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China’s crime-buster gets a second wind
Once front-runner for presidency, Bo Xilai wins praise for anti-triad drive
By Peh Shing Huei
31 October 2009
BEIJING: Once thought to be a front-runner for China’s presidency, Mr. Bo Xilai’s best days were believed to be behind him when rival Xi Jinping was chosen by the Communist Party to be vice-president in 2007.
Mr. Bo, a former commerce minister and the son of former vice-premier and Long March veteran Bo Yibo, was instead sent to head Chongqing municipality.
Yet at age 60, the media-savvy princeling has managed to transform himself into China’s hottest political star. All it took was a wildly successful campaign against triads in the south-western municipality.
The high-profile operation has nabbed more than 1,500 people, including mob leaders, senior officials and tycoons, since June and has earned Mr. Bo praise from state media and netizens alike.
A blog post titled ‘Six reasons why Bo Xilai should be the next General Secretary’ has even been circulated online, extolling the merits of Mr. Bo as Mr. Hu Jintao’s successor as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and hence, China’s President.
The author, who went by the name of ‘Xie Bing’, called Mr. Bo a modern Justice Bao, who was a Song Dynasty magistrate famous for his fight against injustice and corruption. Xie argued that Mr. Bo has the wits and courage to tackle China’s problems and that he is more suitable than Vice-President Xi, whose late father Xi Zhongxun was also a CCP elder, to lead the party.
Meanwhile, doubts have been raised about Mr. Xi’s heir apparent status after he was not given a senior military post during a key CCP meeting last month.
Observers believed that Mr. Bo might still stand a chance, albeit a long shot, to succeed Mr. Hu in 2012.
‘Of course, Xi still has a better chance than everyone else,’ said analyst Bo Zhiyue of the East Asian Institute in Singapore. ‘But if the CCP does what it says it would do, to have intra-party democracy, then Bo’s popularity would put him in a strong contending position.’
Mr. Bo has been stealing the national limelight with his mafia-busting moves.
The People’s Daily online, the website of the CCP mouthpiece, even compared his campaign to the one by late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to wipe out bandits in the south-western region 60 years ago.
‘Bo has taken on high-profile issues such as campaigns against corruption and organised crime that are bound to create popular support for him,’ said veteran China watcher June Teufel Dreyer of the University of Miami.
‘As long as there is no credible evidence that he has himself profited from illicit funding, being high profile gives him an advantage over any would-be rivals.’
Mr. Bo, who transformed the north-eastern port city of Dalian and the province of Liaoning from backwater regions into economic engines in the 1990s and 2000s, also impressed many when he defused a massive taxi strike last year.
He personally met the strikers and addressed their grievances. He even allowed the roundtable meeting to be telecast live on TV, radio and the Internet.
As blogger Xie wrote: ‘Among the millions of CCP officials, only Bo Xilai would dare to run onto the streets and meet strikers, make a decision on the spot and be able to persuade them instead of being beaten to death.’
But Mr. Bo’s age - he is four years older than 56-year-old Mr. Xi - could work against him. Analyst Wang Zhengxu also warned that Mr. Bo’s high profile could attract attacks from rivals in a political culture which frowns on flamboyance.
Mr. Bo seemed to have anticipated such criticisms, and has downplayed his contributions in the mafia crackdown.
In a speech on Wednesday, he insisted that Chongqing was simply following Beijing’s instructions on fighting crime. He also paid tribute to the crime-fighting records of present and past leaders, from Mr. Hu to former president Jiang Zemin.
Obviously the hottest political star is not just making all the right moves, but backing them up with all the right noises.
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