本帖最后由 舒服闲人 于 2012-2-20 09:12 编辑
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/world/asia/scandal-may-end-rise-of-bo-xilai-party-official-in-china.html?ref=chinaScandal May Topple Party Official in China [size=0.9em]Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times
Formerly the wartime capital of China, the Chongqing area has seen monumental growth during Bo Xilai's rule.
By IAN JOHNSON and JONATHAN ANSFIELDPublished: February 16, 2012
- [url=][size=1em]RECOMMEND[/url]
- [url=][size=1em]TWITTER[/url]
- [url=]LINKEDIN[/url]
- SIGN IN TO E-MAIL
- PRINT
- SINGLE PAGE
- REPRINTS
- SHARE
[size=1.5em]CHONGQING, China — This week, the United States has been host to China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, hoping to glean clues to the country’s future. But for the Chinese, it is an unfolding political drama in this sprawling mountain city that could have a major impact on the country’s political fortunes.
Related
- [size=1em]For the Vice President of China, Tea Time in Iowa (February 16, 2012)
- [size=1em]Chinese Vice President Urges U.S. to Respect ‘Core Interests’(February 16, 2012)
- [size=1em]In Charged Moment, China’s Political Heir Tries Introducing Himself to U.S. (February 12, 2012)
Connect With Us on Twitter[size=1.2em]Follow@nytimesworldfor international breaking news and headlines. [size=1.2em]Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
[size=1.1em]Enlarge This Image
Monica Almeida/The New York Times[size=1.1em]Xi Jinping, China's leader-in-waiting, arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday. He met with Gov. Jerry Brown and Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, and toured a shipping terminal there.
[size=1.5em]Here in Chongqing, the Communist Party’s secretive, stage-managed process of installing a new generation of leaders has become a more open and sometimes brutal contest, with fortunes of leaders of broadly different inclinations at stake. [size=1.5em]“What’s going on in Chongqing is a battle over the future course of China,” said Wang Kang, a local writer and commentator. “It is about how China should be run.” [size=1.5em]It also has implications for American politics. Despite denials from Washington, American diplomats and Chinese sources with ties to security services say that one of the chief figures in Chongqing sought asylum at a United States Consulate but was rebuffed partly because the United States did not want to create a diplomatic crisis ahead of Mr. Xi’s trip. [size=1.5em]The main player is the region’s powerful party secretary, Bo Xilai, the closest China has to a Western-style politician. A tall, suave 63-year-old, Mr. Bo has intrigued foreign and domestic political watchers for two decades — as mayor of a port city, provincial governor, commerce minister and now head of Chongqing, a city-state the size of Austria with 30 million people. Unlike Mr. Xi, seen as humble and deft, Mr. Bo is a tenacious fighter and showman. [size=1.5em]He is also a contender for the Standing Committee of the party’s Politburo, which would put him among the nine people — with Mr. Xi at the head — who have final say on everything from currency exchange rates to Tibet. [size=1.5em]But Mr. Bo’s chances have suffered a serious blow because of an unfolding corruption scandal involving Wang Lijun, the man he recruited as Chongqing’s top law enforcement officer. While some observers say Mr. Bo’s ascension cannot be ruled out, most seem to think his upward trajectory has stalled. [size=1.5em]Until recently, Mr. Bo’s tenure in Chongqing had seemed brilliant. For most of his political ascent, Mr. Bo relied on his father, Bo Yibo, a revolutionary war leader who died only in 2007. As the offspring of a top-ranking official, or “princeling,” he is part of a network of people who can bypass normal channels, both for personal and political gain. [size=1.5em]Mr. Bo used these connections to carry out a series of populist changes in Chongqing. Once the wartime capital of China, it was expanded in the 1990s into a small, mostly rural province with a metropolis at its center. [size=1.5em]He vowed to double the region’s urban population to 20 million by the end of the decade. And he oversaw a pilot program to award millions of farmers urban residency and built hundreds of thousands of low-rent apartments to lure them, although local experts say his underlings have relied heavily on coercion. [size=1.5em]Another of Mr. Bo’s initiatives was a much-publicized campaign to revive Mao-era songs and ideology. He also made populist promises to double rural incomes and took on foreign companies like Wal-Mart, burnishing his credentials with people wary of the influence of multinational corporations in China. [size=1.5em]Most famously, he attacked the triads, mafia-type groups that for decades arbitrated disputes and squeezed ordinary citizens. [size=1.5em]To attack the triads, Mr. Bo hired Mr. Wang, an official he had known from an earlier posting. Mr. Wang had a reputation for courage — he had personally stormed a hotel and arrested a crime boss after knocking him cold with an uppercut — but also for brutality. In one case reported in the Chinese news media, he was so enraged that a pedicab driver had had the temerity to be run over by his white Mercedes that he leapt out, beat the man and had him detained for 15 days on a traffic violation. [size=1.5em]With Mr. Bo running political interference, Mr. Wang took on the gangs, arresting 2,000 people, including high-level Communist Party officials charged with shielding crime lords. The campaign also ignored normal judicial procedures. There have been 13 executions. [size=1.5em][size=-1] [size=1.5em](Page 2 of 2) [size=1.5em]In Chongqing, Mr. Bo remains mostly popular. Public housing, better roads and safer neighborhoods all resonate, even if many rural residents chafe at forced relocation. “I can tell that people are wealthier and spending more,” said Yang Xuebo, a fruit seller. “He is ambitious, but if you’re a leader you have to have big visions.”
Related - [size=1em]For the Vice President of China, Tea Time in Iowa (February 16, 2012)
- [size=1em]Chinese Vice President Urges U.S. to Respect ‘Core Interests’(February 16, 2012)
- [size=1em]In Charged Moment, China’s Political Heir Tries Introducing Himself to U.S. (February 12, 2012)
Connect With Us on TwitterFollow@nytimesworldfor international breaking news and headlines.Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
[size=1.5em] Back in Beijing, even many liberal critics are excited by his boldness to break the rules and push through reforms, after a near absence of significant change for a decade.“
[size=1.5em]Xi Jinping may be well-intentioned, but he is not the kind of character who really dares to take on the vested interests,” said one fellow princeling who has advised leaders, including Mr. Bo. “Bo Xilai is the probably the only person who dares.”
[size=1.5em]Civil libertarians are appalled at the disrespect for due process. Mr. Bo’s promotion of old-style Communist culture is seen as an effort to revive an era best left at rest. And his economics are criticized as copying Mao-style “leapfrog development” that was meant to modernize China in a single bound but ended in disaster. And Mr. Bo has infuriated many of China’s top leaders and their families.
[size=1.5em]For example, he ordered the arrest of a lawyer who had defended one of Chongqing’s crime bosses. But the head of the lawyer’s firm was the son of another deceased revolutionary leader, Peng Zhen. Mr. Peng and the elder Mr. Bo had been bitter rivals, and the attack on the lawyer revived this generational feud.
[size=1.5em]Now, the years of brash action seem to have caught up with Mr. Bo. Several months ago, his top police official, Mr. Wang, became the target of an investigation into corruption in a northeastern city, Tieling, where he had worked.
[size=1.5em]When party investigators first questioned Mr. Wang, Mr. Bo spoke favorably and sought to protect him, according to the fellow princeling. But under pressure from central authorities, Mr. Bo soon began to turn, and this month Mr. Bo effectively demoted Mr. Wang.
[size=1.5em]A few days later, Mr. Wang learned that his driver had been arrested, according to the source. Mr. Wang apparently panicked. On Feb. 6, he drove 200 miles from Chongqing to the nearest United States Consulate, in Chengdu.
[size=1.5em]He stayed overnight, talking with consular officials and inquiring about the possibility of political asylum, according to American diplomats. Washington rebuffed the request mainly because it would be logistically difficult, but also because it was reluctant to upset Sino-American relations on the eve of Mr. Xi’s visit, the diplomats said. It was not clear how Mr. Wang could have left China — a posse of local and national police officers was already waiting outside the consulate — and the Americans were queasy about protecting someone linked to so many human rights abuses.
[size=1.5em]On the record, American officials would say only that Mr. Wang left the consulate “of his own volition.” Other sources in China said that Mr. Wang’s chief goals were to seek refuge from Mr. Bo and make clear to him that incriminating knowledge or evidence had been passed on. Mr. Wang left the consulate and is reported in detention in Beijing.
[size=1.5em]Within a couple days, Mr. Bo sent a letter to the leadership in which he took responsibility for having promoted and “failed to investigate” Mr. Wang, and offered, if only perfunctorily, to resign, according to the fellow princeling.
[size=1.5em]His future is a matter of conjecture. He may face retirement, or end up in a ceremonial job at a consultative conference or the rubber-stamp Parliament.« PREVIOUS PAGE
Ian Johnson reported from Chongqing, and Jonathan Ansfield from Beijing. Edy Yin contributed research from Beijing, and Andrew Jacobs contributed reporting from Beijing.
|
狗仔卡
发表于 2012-2-20 08:43
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
楼主
