Early this year, as then Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai nearly came to blows with his police chief Wang Lijun over his wife’s possible involvement in a mysterious death, three men flew into the south-western Chinese metropolis within a day or two of one another.
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Bo’s feud with police chief: Trio failed to broker peace
New York Times
22 May 2012
Early this year, as then Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai nearly came to blows with his police chief Wang Lijun over his wife’s possible involvement in a mysterious death, three men flew into the south-western Chinese metropolis within a day or two of one another.
They were members of Mr. Bo’s inner court, and they had come to repair the rupture between the strong-willed Bo and his equally driven police chief.
The trio - two powerful businessmen Xu Ming and Ma Biao and a former intelligence agent Yu Junshi - had befriended the leaders years ago. They knew both to be controlling and impulsive, and their goal was to broker a peace.
Mr. Xu, 41, listed by Forbes as China’s eighth-richest person in 2005, had flown in on his private jet.
He and the others held separate meetings with Mr. Bo and Wang. The damage was irreparable.
Mr. Yu rushed home and stuffed a bag with 1.2 million yuan (S$240,000) to take to a bank with Mr. Ma. All three fled on Mr. Xu’s jet to Australia shortly after Wang fled to a US consulate on Feb 6 where he exposed Mr. Bo’s scandal.
But they returned on Feb 10 and have been detained as central suspects or witnesses in the investigation into Mr. Bo’s alleged misuse of power since around March 15, the day the leader was removed from his Chongqing post.
Mr. Bo’s fall has opened a window on how some of his closest allies from his years as a rising official in north-east China became entwined in the social and economic fabric of Chongqing, which he governed for four years.
Now some people associated with the circle have revealed the workings of Mr. Bo’s shadowy court, and of the panic that set in when these ambitious figures realised their world was about to collapse.
‘These are powerful men with their own style,’ said one person. ‘It was all very strange, very abnormal, the way they acted at that time.’
Mr. Xu and Mr. Ma, who came to know Mr. Bo when he was mayor of Dalian city in north-east China in the 1990s, had become involved in land deals in Chongqing after the leader was transferred there. They feared being brought down if Mr. Bo was investigated for corruption, their associates said.
Mr. Yu was the first to come to Chongqing from the north-east, having been sent there by Mr. Bo in 2007 to gather information and build relations before he assumed the posting. A former intelligence officer, Mr. Yu came to know Mr. Bo when he was investigated by the police over his business activities in Dalian and enlisted the help of the lawyer wife of Mr. Bo, then the city’s mayor.
He soon became friends with Mr. Bo, Mr. Xu, Mr. Ma and Wang, who was a police officer in the surrounding province of Liaoning, said people familiar with this history.
Mr. Yu moved in rarefied circles in Chongqing and kept a low profile. Business executives seeking to curry favour with Mr. Bo and Wang sometimes approached him.
As for Mr. Xu, he built up his main conglomerate, Dalian Shide, in the 1990s by winning contracts from Dalian’s officials. Its holdings range from home appliances to finance to building materials.
‘Bo Xilai would always give Xu Ming advantages in doing business,’ said one person.
Mr. Xu also received generous loans from state banks, including from China Guangfa Bank, where Mr. Ma was a branch chief. Mr. Ma left the bank years ago and started an insurance company.
After Mr. Bo arrived in Chongqing, he and Mr. Xu set up several companies to develop Chongqing real estate, according to financial records and information from government and company websites.
The companies bought at least a half-million square metres of land in Chongqing, according to Chinese news media reports.
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