Gu and the family secretary Zhang Xiaojun have been charged over the alleged poisoning of Heywood last November. Initially the police tried to cover up the death by saying that the cause of death was excessive alcohol consumption. The cover up failed as Bo’s police chief, Wang Lijuan, had claimed that he had evidence on the involvement of Bo in Heywood’s death. Wang created a sensation when he took asylum in the US consulate in Chengdu in February, with a charge sheet against Bo in his pocket.
Bo’s downfall was swift. He was purged from all Communist forums in March and thus President Hu Jintao dashed his dreams of a berth in the powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
Xinhua’s despatch on L’affaire Gu and Bo was short on specifics. It merely said that Gu murdered Heywood after they fell out over “economic interests” but didn’t spell out what these economic interests were. Going by local media reports, it is clear that Heywood, who held the Beijing dealerships for Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce, had close connection with Bo’s family since the 1990s. He helped attract foreign investors to the various fiefdoms over which Bo ruled in Chongqing, and also assisted with the transfer of huge sums from Bo’s fortune overseas.
The formal charging of Gu indicates that the leadership would like to bring the curtains down on the Bo saga. The corruption allegations are a devastating indictment of the entire CCP regime at a time when decks are more or less cleared for the 18th Party Congress to anoint a new generation leaders.
As clearly brought out by a report on BBC’s Chinese service, the CCP leadership has decided to deal with Bo as an “individual case”, rather than one involving “an anti-party clique” or “a major conspiracy”. Any decision to attack Bo’s factional allies would have cut across efforts to prepare a “united” Congress.
The year-end CCP conclave will see President Hu and Premier Wen handover the baton to the “fifth” generation of leadership headed by Vice President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Li Keqiang.
President Hu has already set the tone for the Congress with his call for ‘unity’ at a major meeting of provincial satraps. He spoke of the “unprecedented challenge” facing the party and repeatedly emphasized the need to stick with Deng Xiaoping’s economic “reform and open up”—. Put differently, this is a call for extending the pro-market policies. Only this February, as the growth rates appeared to plummet, the World Bank asked Beijing to further open up the Chinese market by deepening the pro-market reforms.
How far Hu would be able to carry forward his pledge is difficult to crystal gaze amidst falling growth rates, and deteriorating living standards.
