Internal Circular on Bo’s Crimes Signals Imminent Trial of Bo

Ming Pao says that there was internal circular giving more details of Bo’s case that Bo’s wife Gu Kailai has taken bribes worth more than 20 million yuan (US$3.14 million) while Bo himself has directly taken bribes worth approximately 6 million yuan (US$942,000).

Source who has access to the circular revealed to Ming Pao that the circular did not mention whether Bo received through his wife the bribes taken by his wife. A list of bribers is given in the circular for the bribes taken by Bo directly including businessmen Xu Ming and Yu Junshi who are close to Bo. However, Bo’s son Bo Guagua has not been mentioned throughout the circular.

The circular also pointed out Bo’s offence in transferring Wang Lijun’s post and conducting illegal investigation of those close to Wang when Wang informed Bo of his suspicion that Bo’s wife murdered Neil Heywood. Those have already been covered by Xinhua’s report.

However, it is unknown whether Bo is able to prove that he was not aware of his wife’s taking bribes.

Ming Pao says that according to Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan, if Bo is only guilty of taking bribes of 6 million yuan, he will not get the death penalty. However, if he had been aware of his wife’s offence of taking 20 million yuan of bribes or has taken the bribes through his wife, Bo may be executed.

I think it is quite interesting that at Gu Kailai’s trial not long ago, Gu’s crime of taking huge bribes was not mentioned at all though it was a heinous crime punishable by death penalty.

Certainly, the prosecutors knew Bo’s wife’s crime of taking the huge bribes at that time, but they just turn a blind eye to it.

Shame that they even claimed that the trial was the victory of their rule of law. How ridiculous!

For 20 years, Bo was praised and promoted for his honesty and good performance, but upon investigation he is found to have committed lots of crimes including taking bribes, abusing power, womanizing, etc. in the 20 years. I wonder how many officials in China will be found honest when they have all gone through careful investigation.

The struggle against corruption can never succeed if there is no independent judiciary, true rule of law or democratic supervision of officials by the people.

SCMP says in its report titled “Beijing in scramble to put Bo Xilai on trial ahead of leadership transition”, “Bo Xilai is likely to stand trial before the start of the leadership succession next month, as Beijing scrambles to limit the fallout from his scandalous downfall, analysts say.”

Indeed, details revealed in the trial of Bo will certainly harm the Party’s image.

However, the party is now in fact in a dilemma. The failure to mention Bo’s wife’s crime of taking bribes or to mention Bo’s name in Wang Lijun’s case proved that the party had tried to avoid revealing Bo’s crimes to protect its image.

However, the factions who have won the power struggle decided later that if the conservatives have not been hit hard this time, they may come back later; therefore, Bo must be punished as hard as possible without mercy.

That has made the trials that have been claimed to prove the satisfactory rule of law, a true mess. Bo’s wife’s prosecutors tried to cover up her heinous crime of taking over 20 million yuan of bribes, which they of course knew after prolonged investigation. Bo, however, is now accused of his wife’s crime soon afterwards.

The principal of the crime has not been prosecuted for it while her accomplice shall be mainly liable for it. What rule of law! What justice!

SCMP says, “Beijing-based historian Zhang Lifan and He Weifang, a law professor at PekingUniversity, said a hasty trial would deal another blow to the party’s crumbling credibility.”

However, faced with the dilemma, the victorious factions believe a thorough victory over conservatives is much more important for China’s reform in the future. They would rather suffer the deterioration of the party’s credibility.