Scandal May Topple Party Official in China

17.02.2012

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. 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.

“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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.