Infographics
08.15.18
Visualizing China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign
“Catching Tigers and Flies” is ChinaFile’s interactive tool for tracking and, we hope, better understanding the massive campaign against corruption that Xi Jinping launched shortly after he came to power in late 2012. It is designed to give users a sense of the scope and character of the anti-corruption campaign by graphically rendering information about more than 2,000 of its targets whose cases have been publicly announced in official Chinese sources.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.24.17Former Political Star in China Is Under Party Investigation
New York Times
The Chinese Communist Party said on Monday that Sun Zhengcai, a high-flying politician who had been seen as a potential future premier, was under investigation over suspected “grave violations of discipline,” ending his career and raising the stakes...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.17.17China’s Top Graft Buster Attacks ‘Unhealthy’ Political Culture
Reuters
China’s top graft-buster launched a scathing attack on the ruling Communist Party’s members on Monday, writing that party political culture remained ‘unhealthy’ and governance weak even after five years of renewed effort to fight the problem.
Sinica Podcast
03.16.16
Everything Old is New Again
from Sinica Podcast
Members of the Politburo are rarely praised for their dancing skills, but consider Xi Jinping’s almost flawless execution of the political two-step: first casting himself as the voice of liberal moderation in the face of Bo Xilai’s mass propaganda,...
Media
12.08.14
Happy Friday, Zhou Yongkang
Eight minutes after midnight on Friday, the axe fell on Zhou Yongkang: a terse news release from state-run Xinhua news agency said that China’s former security czar Zhou had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, his case handed over to...
Infographics
12.05.14
China’s Fallen Mighty [Graphic]
Over the past thirty-eight years, twelve of China’s top leaders have been purged. This infographic and the bios of these leaders explain how and why these mighty men fell. Download the high-resolution graphic.
Features
12.05.14
China’s Fallen Mighty [Updated]
Political infighting and purges have been hallmarks of the Chinese Communist Party since its earliest days but came to a peak during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, damaging the country and paralyzing the Party itself. When Mao died in 1976, it...
Caixin Media
08.25.14
His Start in Oil Fuelled Zhou’s Rise to Top Cop
Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party's supreme decision-making body, has been the highest ranking Party cadre to be a target of a corruption investigation.The Party's graft fighters...
ChinaFile Recommends
05.23.14Special Report: The Power Struggle Behind China's Corruption Crackdown
Reuters
When Xi Jinping was named President in March last year, the 48-year-old billionaire Liu Han was detained and surrounded by corruption investigators and prison guards.
ChinaFile Recommends
01.13.14New Detail Emerges About Bo Xilai’s Downfall
New York Times
Sanlian Life said Australian reporter, John Garnaut, was involved in the Bo Xilai case.
Conversation
12.17.13
Why Is China Purging Its Former Top Security Chief, Zhou Yongkang?
Pin Ho:[Zhou Yongkang’s downfall] is the second chapter of the “Bo Xilai Drama”—a drama begun at the 18th Party Congress. The Party’s power transition has been secret and has lacked convincing procedure. This [lack of transparency] has triggered...
ChinaFile Recommends
11.08.13In Mess Bo Left Behind, An Opportunity for Beijing to Set Things Right
Wall Street Journal
Bo Xilai’s “Smash the Black” campaign used ruthless measures to curb organized crime. The recent guilty verdict handed to Bo gives the Chinese leadership an opportunity to demonstrate that illegalities committed in the course of...
Features
10.25.13
Bo Xilai May Have Gotten Off Easy
On October 25, the Shandong High People’s Court rejected the appeal of Bo Xilai, the former Party Secretary of Chongqing who on September 22 was convicted of bribe-taking, embezzlement, and abuse of power and sentenced to life in prison.At the end...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.23.13China to Announce Decision on Bo Xilai Appeal
Reuters
A court in eastern China said it would announce a decision on October 25 on whether to accept an appeal by ousted former senior politician Bo Xilai over his guilty verdict and life sentence on charges of bribery, corruption and...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.15.13Court to Hear Bo Xilai Appeal
Xinhua
A Chinese provincial court announced on Wednesday that it will hear the appeal of Bo Xilai. Bo did not accept his sentence at the first trial at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court and submitted an appeal to the Shandong Higher...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.07.13The Good, the Bad and the Exiled? China's Class of '77
CNN
After walking several blocks through New York's busy streets recently, I finally found Wang Juntao in the middle of Times Square, where the exiled Chinese dissident was holding a sit-down protest.
ChinaFile Recommends
10.04.13Chinese Official at Center of Scandal is Found Guilty and Given a Life Term
New York Times
Bo Xilai, the pugnacious Chinese politician whose downfall shook the Communist Party, was sentenced to life in prison after a court found him guilty of bribetaking, embezzlement and abuse of power in a failed attempt to stifle murder allegations...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.01.13Famous Trials of China’s Communist Party
BBC
An historical look at two other famous trials in recent Communist Party history: the Gang of Four trial after the Cultural Revolution, and the corruption trials of Chen Xitong and Chen Liangyu which bears greater resemblance to the Bo Xilai case...
ChinaFile Recommends
10.01.13Bo Xilai ‘Will Appeal’ Verdict and Sentence Jinan Court Hands Down
South China Morning Post
Defiant princeling Bo Xilai is likely to appeal against the verdict and sentence a Jinan court hands down today (9/22) in his trial for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, sources with direct knowledge of the case say.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.27.13Chinese Court to Announce Verdict of Bo’s Case on 9/22
Xinhua
The Jinan Intermediate People’s Court announced Wednesday that it will deliver the verdict on former secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (C.P.C.) Bo Xilai’s case at 10 a.m. on Sept. 22...
Conversation
09.17.13
What’s Behind China’s Recent Internet Crackdown?
Last weekend, Charles Xue Manzi, a Chinese American multi-millionaire investor and opinion leader on one of China’s most popular microblogs, appeared in handcuffs in an interview aired on China Central Television (CCTV). Xue is just the most visible...
Sinica Podcast
09.13.13
Petroleum and Purges
from Sinica Podcast
The Beijing rumor-mill is back on overdrive. With the trial of Bo Xilai only barely concluded and the country now openly speculating on the length of the disgraced politician’s likely sentence, factional battles targeting Bo’s remaining supporters...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.11.13China Corruption Probe Reflects Struggle
Deutsche Welle
Analysts argue the investigation, which involves four other top executives of state-owned enterprises, is an attempt by Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to assert their authority over powerful S.O.E.’s.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.05.13Deng Xiaoping’s Lessons for Today’s China
Bloomberg
The earthy Deng, father of reform-era China, favored a Chinese phrase to describe the current anti-corruption maneuvers being undertaken at Xi Jinping’s behest: killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.05.13Zhou Yongkang, Former Security Tsar Linked to Bo Xilai, Faces Corruption Probe
South China Morning Post
Sources said top leaders made the decision in view of the rising anger inside the party at the scale of the corruption problem and the vast fortune that Zhou's family has amassed. Xi ordered officials in charge of the case to “get to the bottom...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.05.13Look Who’s Afraid of Democracy
New York Times
For all of China’s vaunted influence in the world, many of its top leaders are deeply fearful of losing control of their own country. That fear is reflected in the Bo Xilai trial and the recently revealed “Document No. 9” warning of subversive...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.03.13China’s Rule-of-Law Trial
Council on Foreign Relations
The just-concluded trial of former Communist Party boss Bo Xilai was unprecedented in opening up a high-profile legal proceeding to public scrutiny, says legal scholar Jerome A. Cohen.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.03.13Ai Weiwei on China’s Trial of the Century
Bloomberg
Ai Weiwei’s commentary on the twisted courtroom drama provided by the trial of Bo Xilai and what implications it holds for the future of “rule of law” in China, both for citizens and officials of all ranks.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.03.13Censorship, Sex, and the Bo Xilai Trial
New Yorker
By allowing the ousted politician to have a say at all, and by releasing portions of the daily transcript the Party has highlighted its progressiveness and successfully deflected attention from the theatrical nature of a masterfully choreographed...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.03.13How the Media Got the Bo Xilai Trial Wrong
Foreign Policy
Beijing managed to keep much of the Bo saga - and the elite machinations that precipitated it - from the foreign press. As humbling as it may be to admit, we know very little about what goes on at the highest levels of Chinese politics.
ChinaFile Recommends
09.03.13Political Staging in Trial of Fallen China Official
New York Times
The courtroom spectacle is an effort by the party to convince Bo’s elite party allies and ordinary supporters that he had his say in court, and that the long prison sentence he is expected to get is based on evidence of crimes committed, not...
ChinaFile Recommends
09.03.13Bo Xilai Trial Transcripts Expose a Privileged World of Wealth
Los Angeles Times
The corruption trial of Bo Xilai is offering the world a peek past the vermilion walls of the Chinese leadership compounds and through the tinted glass of their motorcades into a private sphere of immense entitlement.
Sinica Podcast
08.30.13
The Trial of the Century
from Sinica Podcast
The spectacular trial of Bo Xilai seized the media’s attention last week as the fallen politburo member—still widely admired in Chongqing and Dalian and heavily connected among the Party elite—defended himself with unexpected vigor against charges...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Prosecutors Say Disgraced Chinese Politician Knew About Bribes
New York Times
Prosecutors in the trial of Bo Xilai presented testimony on Friday asserting that he knew about a villa on the French Riviera bought for his family by a tycoon and about demands for compensation from the manager of the villa who...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.136 Things You Need to Know About Bo Xilai’s Trial
Foreign Policy
Day one of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai’s trial on charges of bribery, corruption, and abusing his power has come to an end. For those who didn’t spend last night glued to their devices, here’s what you missed.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13The East is Still Red
Foreign Policy
China’s Left believes that only a stronger Communist Party could solve the country’s problems of corruption, inequality, and moral torpor. Those on the Right believe unbridled state power is actually the problem, as China learned during the Mao...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Bo Xilai Trial As Blogged by the Court
BBC
The court at which disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai is being tried has taken the unprecedented step of posting live updates of his trial on Sina weibo, one of China’s Twitter-like microblogs.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.1338 Lenders Linked to Embattled Conglomerate
Xu Ming, the billionaire chairman of Shide Group, a conglomerate based in Dalian has been missing since March 14. Following his disappearance banks have started reviewing loans made to Shide.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13China Boss’s Fall Puts Focus on a Business Ally
New York Times
Entrepreneur Xu Ming allegedly funneled millions of dollars in bribes to Bo Xilai and his family, including paying for trips and perhaps even giving the family a $3.5 million villa on the French Riviera, according to people briefed on the indictment...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Bo Xilai Trial Draws Comparisons to China’s Greatest Courtroom Drama
Los Angeles Review of Books
In 1980, the Gang of Four trial was widely mocked in the West as a political show trial in which Deng Xiaoping purged his enemies. While there are many differences between that trial and Bo’s it is the long ago trial that is likely to prove more...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Bo Xilai Supporters Demonstrate in Shandong on Eve of Trial
Reuters
About 10 people held up signs outside the courthouse in the eastern city of Jinan in Shandong province, where Bo is set to appear in public on Thursday for the first time in 17 months to face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power.&...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Mardi Gras In Jinan: Foreign Correspondents Flock To The Party Of The Century
Beijing Cream
If you’re a China correspondent, you’re likely in Jinan, Shandong province right now, where disgraced former Chongqing Party Chief Bo Xilai, 64, will stand open trial for corruption tomorrow at the Jinan Intermediate...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13At Bo Xilai Trial, a Goal to Blast Acts, Not Ideas
New York Times
In a delicate balancing act, China’s leaders aim to simultaneously parade Mr. Bo as a criminal and silence his most vocal supporters while avoiding tarring the leftist policies he championed or alienating important revolutionary families.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.29.13Can China’s Show Trial Show the Way to Reform
Bloomberg
The Communist Party and its mouthpieces will celebrate the decisiveness of the Bo Xilai verdict as proof that the party - and the courts it controls - won’t tolerate corruption in its ranks. But who will believe this?
Conversation
08.28.13
Beijing, Why So Tense?
Andrew Nathan:I think of the Chinese leaders as holding a plant spritzer and dousing sparks that are jumping up all around them. Mao made the famous remark, “A single spark can start a prairie fire.” The leaders have seen that...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.27.13Bo Guagua’s Statement
New York Times
Bo Guagua released to The New York Times on August 19. Mr. Bo’s father, Bo Xilai, a former Chinese Communist Party official, is scheduled to go on trial on August 22 on charges of taking bribes, corruption and abuse of power.
Media
08.27.13
The Surprise Loser of China’s Trial of the Century: Its Corruption Watchdog
It seems like everybody has something to gain from Show Trial 2.0, a.k.a. the semi-live tweeting of fallen politician Bo Xilai’s day in court.Bo Xilai the showman takes a bow with a flourish; Gu Kailai, the scorned wife, exacts sweet revenge;...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.27.13China’s Fallen Former High-Flyer Bo to Stand Trial
Reuters
The long-awaited trial of Bo who is still popular with conservatives and the disaffected, will be the country’s highest-profile hearing since the 1976 downfall of Mao Zedong’s widow, Jiang Qing, and her Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural...
Viewpoint
08.22.13
How Bo Xilai Split the Party and Divided the People
from Chinese Law Prof Blog
After the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, Chinese political struggles became milder and more mundane. Members of the Politburo and politicians of higher rank rarely were toppled (except for Chen Liangyu in 2006) and ideology seldom triggered significant...
Media
08.22.13
You Can’t Handle the Truth: Bo Xilai’s Courtroom Performance Wins Fans
A show trial this is not. But is a twist ending in the major blockbuster “The Life of Bo Xilai” in the offing?The long-awaited trial of Bo Xilai, once a rising star in the Chinese Communist Party, took place Thursday morning, but instead of the...
Conversation
08.21.13
Is Xi Jinping Redder Than Bo Xilai Or Vice Versa?
Michael Anti:Competing for Redness: The Scarlet Bo vs the Vermilion Xi?Bo Xilai, the fallen Chinese princeling famous for leading a “Red Songs” communist campaign in southwest China's megacity Chongqing, is on trial today, live-Twittered from...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.21.13China Vanke Chairman Wang Shi Defends Right to Speak out on Politics
South China Morning Post
Property tycoon Wang Shi has defended the rights of businessmen like himself to speak up on political issues, citing disgraced Politburo member Bo Xilai’s efforts to enlist his support for his controversial campaigns.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.21.13Where Is China’s Gorbachev?
Atlantic
Why China hasn't had—and isn't likely to have—a political reformer in the mold of the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.12.13Family of Murdered Briton Seeks Up to $8.2 Million Compensation in China
Reuters
The family of a British citizen murdered in China is seeking compensation of up to $8.2 million from his convicted killer, the wife of former top leader Bo Xilai, a lawyer with knowledge of the talks said on Monday.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.12.13From Maoist Criminal to Popular Hero?
New York Times
China will begin one of the most sensational trials in its modern political history, when Bo Xilai, the former rising star in the Politburo and Communist Party boss in the megacity of Chongqing, faces corruption charges.
ChinaFile Recommends
08.08.13From Maoist Criminal to Popular Hero?
New York Times
At a time of rampant corruption and social injustice, many see Bo Xilai as a charismatic leftist who at least dared to challenge the status quo of organized crime and official self-dealing and to revive Mao’s socialist, egalitarian ideals. ...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.08.13China Detains Prominent Bo Xilai Supporter Ahead of Trial
Reuters
Song Yangbiao, a reporter for the magazine the Time Weekly, was detained on Sunday according to friends and supporters, apparently after using his Sina Weibo microblog to denounce the trial and call for an uprising to oppose it. ...
ChinaFile Recommends
08.05.13The Chinese Communist Party Has Embraced the Internet—For Public Polling
Atlantic
Beijing has started to glean political intelligence from the same systems they restrict access to.
ChinaFile Recommends
07.31.13China's Bo To Plead guilty, But Maybe Not To All Charges
Reuters
Disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai has agreed to plead guilty at a trial likely to be held within weeks, three sources said, in an apparent bid to earn a more lenient sentence and allow authorities to close the door on the country's biggest...
ChinaFile Recommends
07.29.13Bo Xilai's Son Bo Guagua Continues His Studies at Columbia University
South China Morning Post
Bo Guagua, the son of disgraced former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, appears to be enrolled in the prestigious Columbia Law School at Columbia University, according to public records available on the school’s website.