|
|
Bo Xilai, a top Chinese leader, has denied that his son drives a red Ferrari, responding to a Wall Street Journal report in November that described the young man turning up in the luxury sports car for a dinner appointment with the daughter of Jon Huntsman, then U.S. ambassador in Beijing.
Mr. Bo, the Communist Party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing, also told a news conference Friday that the education of his son, Bo Guagua, at two British private schools, as well as Oxford and Harvard universities, were funded by full scholarships, although he did not say from where. (Details of his education also were reported in the Journal’s article.)
“A few people have been pouring filth on Chongqing and me and my family,” Mr. Bo said. “They even say that my son studies abroad and drives a red Ferrari. Sheer rubbish! I feel really furious. Sheer rubbish!”
Neither Mr. Bo nor his son responded to requests for comment before the Journal’s article was published.
Mr. Bo was once considered a frontrunner for promotion to the Party’s Politburo Standing Committee – its top decision-making body – but his political prospects have been clouded since his former police chief was detained after spending a night in the U.S. consulate in the western city of Chengdu last month.
Mr. Bo used the news conference Friday, halfway through an annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, to try to contain the fallout from the scandal, denying that he had offered to resign or was himself under investigation.
Mr. Bo went on to say that his wife, Gu Kailai, had given up her legal career two decades ago when they were living in the northeastern city of Dalian, where Mr. Bo was mayor, precisely so that they wouldn’t be accused of profiting from his position.
“She now basically just stays at home, doing some housework for me. I’m really touched by her sacrifice,” he said. “Some people ask how come my son goes to famous schools like Oxford and Harvard and where do the tuition fees come from. Now I can make it clear, they are all from scholarships!”
Bo Guagua studied at two British private schools, Papplewick and Harrow, and at Oxford University before moving on Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he is currently completing a master’s degree, according to people familiar with the matter.
The schools don’t comment on individual students’ funding. None of them usually offer full scholarships for foreign students themselves. There are private scholarship funds which do so, but many of them do not publicize information about the origins or the recipients of their funds.
Bo Guagua is one of the youngest and most prominent members of a group known collectively as “princelings” – the sons and daughters of senior Party leaders – who are becoming more conspicious as their business interests, and appetites for luxury, expand.
– Jeremy Page
|
|
楼主: pinggougou
狗仔卡
发表于 2012-3-11 12:01
显身卡
