Flamboyance of Bo’s son ‘a factor in family’s fall’
His antics are said to have angered leaders of Communist Party
New York Times 18 April 2012
As the grandson of revolutionary giants, Mr. Bo Guagua enjoyed the prestige and privilege that accompanies membership of China’s ‘red aristocracy’. After a pampered childhood in the walled compounds of the Chinese capital, he was sent off for schooling in Britain, where he developed a reputation as an academically indifferent bon vivant with a weakness for European sports cars, first-class air travel, equestrian sports and the tango.
Mr. Bo’s flamboyance, a staple of social-media gossip in China in recent years, became another liability for his father Bo Xilai, who faces charges of corruption and abuse of power, and his mother Gu Kailai, suspected of being involved in the alleged murder of a British businessman who was close to the young Bo.
Although Communist Party insiders say it was Mr. Bo Xilai’s populist reign in the south-western municipality of Chongqing that ultimately brought him down, his son’s high living clearly irritated party leaders, who named the 24-year-old Harvard student in the official statement describing the reasons for his father’s fall from power.
One former government employee with party ties said the leadership tolerated a certain level of corruption among top officials or their relatives as long as it was kept out of public view. He said the younger Bo’s collegiate antics, splashed across the Internet, were signs of an ambitious, cocksure family who often ignored the party’s conservative standards of public behaviour.
The resulting buzz also drew unwanted attention to other so-called princelings, who often leverage their bloodline for economic gain but generally seek to avoid publicity lest it damage the party’s image of self-sacrifice and asceticism.
‘If you’re discreet, they look the other way,’ the former government employee said. ‘But Guagua’s behaviour was striking by the standards; urinating against a fence at Oxford, kissing foreign girls - it all goes down bad in China.’ Mr. Bo Guagua is also tied to Briton Neil Heywood, whose mysterious death in a Chongqing hotel room in November appears to have led to the Communist Party’s biggest political challenge in decades.
Mr. Heywood reportedly mentored the adolescent Bo and later helped him land a spot at the elite Harrow School in North London. It is unclear how close the two were in recent years, but China’s state media have suggested that there were shared business interests and a ‘conflict’ that led to his mother’s alleged role in the murder.
As his parents remain in detention, the young Bo is finding that the family name that served him so well has become something of a millstone. Given the continuing corruption investigation that could implicate him, he is unlikely to return to China any time soon.
‘I think the options for him look pretty bad,’ said Mr. Roderick MacFarquhar, a China expert at Harvard who has written about the purges that dot contemporary Chinese history.
The details of Mr. Bo’s life were remarkably public. He appeared on a Chinese talk show to discuss his family, and allowed himself to be photographed partying bare-chested and with young women.
A short-lived relationship with Ms. Chen Xiaodan, the granddaughter of another Communist Party pioneer, became fodder for the public after the pair were photographed vacationing in Tibet, trailed by a sizable police escort.
Mr. Bo has lately been staying out of public view, having changed his Facebook account to make it much more private, and he declined to answer questions last week as he left his apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Those who know him say he has been studying for final exams while coping with his parents’ troubles.
In interviews, many of his friends rejected the notion that he was a playboy or a poor student, and they described him as exceedingly generous. He is quick to pick up a bar tab, they said, and he liberally handed out tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
‘His concern for China and its people is deep-rooted and real,’ said one friend in China who spends time with him during his frequent visits home. ‘He’s a big thinker. When he gets drunk, he talks about important things.’
Although one classmate described Mr. Bo as academically lackadaisical, others suggested that he had become more serious about his studies. Last year, he helped organise a China trip for Kennedy School students that included a visit to Chongqing.
‘From my interactions with him, leaving aside all the gossip, he is a smart lad,’ one professor said. ‘He seems to be a typical British public school product: smart, headstrong and self-confident.’ Despite the flashes of bravado, friends said Mr. Bo is acutely aware that in China, the benefits of an illustrious family name can also be a detriment. His grandfather Bo Yibo was a revolutionary hero, but that did not shield him from the purges that sent him and much of his family to jail.
‘I have never met my grandmother because she was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution,’ the younger Bo said in a speech at Peking University in 2009.
In a interview that year with Youth Weekend, a state-run Chinese newspaper, he reflected on the other challenges of his pedigree.
‘When I do well, it is naturally through my own efforts. When I do wrong, I should bear the consequences and do not want the blame to fall on my parents,’ he said. ‘Although I am fully aware that my father is a good man, I do not wish to live under his shadow.’
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Flamboyance of Bo’s son ‘a factor in family’s fall’
His antics are said to have angered leaders of Communist Party
New York Times
18 April 2012
As the grandson of revolutionary giants, Mr. Bo Guagua enjoyed the prestige and privilege that accompanies membership of China’s ‘red aristocracy’. After a pampered childhood in the walled compounds of the Chinese capital, he was sent off for schooling in Britain, where he developed a reputation as an academically indifferent bon vivant with a weakness for European sports cars, first-class air travel, equestrian sports and the tango.
Mr. Bo’s flamboyance, a staple of social-media gossip in China in recent years, became another liability for his father Bo Xilai, who faces charges of corruption and abuse of power, and his mother Gu Kailai, suspected of being involved in the alleged murder of a British businessman who was close to the young Bo.
Although Communist Party insiders say it was Mr. Bo Xilai’s populist reign in the south-western municipality of Chongqing that ultimately brought him down, his son’s high living clearly irritated party leaders, who named the 24-year-old Harvard student in the official statement describing the reasons for his father’s fall from power.
One former government employee with party ties said the leadership tolerated a certain level of corruption among top officials or their relatives as long as it was kept out of public view. He said the younger Bo’s collegiate antics, splashed across the Internet, were signs of an ambitious, cocksure family who often ignored the party’s conservative standards of public behaviour.
The resulting buzz also drew unwanted attention to other so-called princelings, who often leverage their bloodline for economic gain but generally seek to avoid publicity lest it damage the party’s image of self-sacrifice and asceticism.
‘If you’re discreet, they look the other way,’ the former government employee said. ‘But Guagua’s behaviour was striking by the standards; urinating against a fence at Oxford, kissing foreign girls - it all goes down bad in China.’ Mr. Bo Guagua is also tied to Briton Neil Heywood, whose mysterious death in a Chongqing hotel room in November appears to have led to the Communist Party’s biggest political challenge in decades.
Mr. Heywood reportedly mentored the adolescent Bo and later helped him land a spot at the elite Harrow School in North London. It is unclear how close the two were in recent years, but China’s state media have suggested that there were shared business interests and a ‘conflict’ that led to his mother’s alleged role in the murder.
As his parents remain in detention, the young Bo is finding that the family name that served him so well has become something of a millstone. Given the continuing corruption investigation that could implicate him, he is unlikely to return to China any time soon.
‘I think the options for him look pretty bad,’ said Mr. Roderick MacFarquhar, a China expert at Harvard who has written about the purges that dot contemporary Chinese history.
The details of Mr. Bo’s life were remarkably public. He appeared on a Chinese talk show to discuss his family, and allowed himself to be photographed partying bare-chested and with young women.
A short-lived relationship with Ms. Chen Xiaodan, the granddaughter of another Communist Party pioneer, became fodder for the public after the pair were photographed vacationing in Tibet, trailed by a sizable police escort.
Mr. Bo has lately been staying out of public view, having changed his Facebook account to make it much more private, and he declined to answer questions last week as he left his apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Those who know him say he has been studying for final exams while coping with his parents’ troubles.
In interviews, many of his friends rejected the notion that he was a playboy or a poor student, and they described him as exceedingly generous. He is quick to pick up a bar tab, they said, and he liberally handed out tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
‘His concern for China and its people is deep-rooted and real,’ said one friend in China who spends time with him during his frequent visits home. ‘He’s a big thinker. When he gets drunk, he talks about important things.’
Although one classmate described Mr. Bo as academically lackadaisical, others suggested that he had become more serious about his studies. Last year, he helped organise a China trip for Kennedy School students that included a visit to Chongqing.
‘From my interactions with him, leaving aside all the gossip, he is a smart lad,’ one professor said. ‘He seems to be a typical British public school product: smart, headstrong and self-confident.’ Despite the flashes of bravado, friends said Mr. Bo is acutely aware that in China, the benefits of an illustrious family name can also be a detriment. His grandfather Bo Yibo was a revolutionary hero, but that did not shield him from the purges that sent him and much of his family to jail.
‘I have never met my grandmother because she was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution,’ the younger Bo said in a speech at Peking University in 2009.
In a interview that year with Youth Weekend, a state-run Chinese newspaper, he reflected on the other challenges of his pedigree.
‘When I do well, it is naturally through my own efforts. When I do wrong, I should bear the consequences and do not want the blame to fall on my parents,’ he said. ‘Although I am fully aware that my father is a good man, I do not wish to live under his shadow.’
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