Bo Xilai's Case: China's Pandora's Box

By Evan Osnos on September 28, 2012

The Chinese Communist Party has just done something it hates to do: hang its dirty laundry out in public. With a level of force and lurid color that surprised just about everyone who pays attention to these things, on Friday the Party ended the greatest guessing game in Chinese politics by unveiling the charges against the once-golden politician Bo Xilai. In the months since April, when Bo became the center of the greatest Chinese scandal in decades, the question about the fate of the sixty-two-year-old former Party Secretary of Chongqing has been clear: Would the Party treat him with a light touch in order to minimize disruption to the balance of power, or would it make a public example of its willingness to punish those whose actions risk the whole enterprise? Ultimately, the Party chose the latter, and in spectacular fashion.

Law, Politics
Bo Xilai, Corruption, Party Politics, Leadership Transition

Ousted From Party in China, Bo Xilai Faces Prosecution

By Edward Wong on September 28, 2012

Chinese leaders announced on Friday that Bo Xilai, a disgraced Communist Party aristocrat, had been expelled from the party and would be prosecuted on criminal charges, as the date for the 18th Party Congress, climaxing China’s once-a-decade leadership transition, was scheduled to start on Nov. 8.

Law, Politics, Society
Bo Xilai, Gu Kailai, Neil Heywood, Wang Lijun, Chinese Communist Party

Living on Dangerous Ground

on September 28, 2012

Fractures had long plagued the rocky mountainside next to Huang Daihong’s home. When an earthquake jolted Luozehe County in Yunnan province, Huang watched a large black boulder release a shower of stones that instantly killed her neighbor.

The September 7 quake that struck the city of Zhaotong at 11 a.m. had a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale, and an aftershock measured 5.6. All told, eighty-one people were killed.

The big black boulder that still rests near Huang’s home is a reminder for her and her neighbors that living in the area is dangerous.

An Evening at the Beijing Bookworm

By Jeremy Goldkorn, Ian Johnson & more on September 28, 2012

On September 13, Sinica co-host Jeremy Goldkorn was delighted to chair a panel discussion at the Beijing Bookworm with authors Ian Johnson and Christina Larson, two well-known China journalists and now contributors to Chinese Characters, a collection of essays on individualism in modern China edited by Jeffrey Wasserstrom of the University of California, Irvine and freelance writer Angilee Shah.

Chinese Female Official Aspires to Top Role

By Leslie Hook on September 27, 2012

Most of the 25 members of China’s Politburo are uncannily similar, with their black-dyed hair, dark suits and science degrees, but one stands out.

With her trademark blue skirt-suit and pearls, Liu Yandong, 66, the top official in charge of health, education, culture and sports, is the only woman in the group.

As China prepares for its once-in-a-decade leadership transition next month, Liu is an outside contender to become the first woman to join the Politburo standing committee, the group of nine officials who rule China.

Politics, Society
Liu Yandong, Gender Equality, Politburo Standing Committee, Leadership Transition

China’s Wealthiest: When Getting Rich Is Not Glorious

By The Economist on September 27, 2012

Each year around this time, the Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based luxury publishing and events group, releases its compiled list of China’s wealthiest people. The report not only satisfies the prurient interest of those fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but also reflects important trends underlying success and failure in the world of Chinese business.

Business, Society
Hurun Report, Consumption, Entrepreneurs

China Politics Stall Overhaul for Economy

By Andrew Jacobs on September 27, 2012

When it comes to confronting economic slowdowns, the Chinese government has not been shy about making bold moves. Faced with the contagion of global recession four years ago, policy makers created a $585 billion stimulus package that helped inoculate the nation against the economic malaise still sapping the United States and Europe.

But today, even as China’s vaunted export manufacturing juggernaut loses force and the Shanghai stock market remains in a slump, the Communist Party appears so distracted by its politically tangled once-a-decade leadership transition that it is unwilling or unable to pursue the more ambitious agenda that many economists say is necessary to head off a far more serious crisis in the future.

Economy, Politics
Economic Downturn, Leadership Transition