- Bo Xilai
:"This is a
Chinese name ; the family name is Bo."Infobox_President
name = Bo Xilai
薄熙来small| caption = Official portrait of Bo
order = 2nd Minister of Commerce of the
People'sRepublic of China term_start = 2004
term_end = 2007
predecessor =
Lu Fuyuan successor =
Chen Deming order2 = CPC
Chongqing CommitteeSecretaryterm_start2 = 2007
term_end2 =
predecessor2 = Wang Yang
birth_date = July 1949
birth_place =
Dingrang ,Shanxi death_date =
death_place =
alma_mater =
Peking University Chinese Academy of SocialSciences relations =
Bo Yibo (father)party =
Communist Party of China spouse =
Gu Kailai children =
Bo Guagua religion =
|
Bo Xilai (薄熙来;
pinyin : Bó Xīlái; pronounced "BeuhShy'ii-lie") (born July 1949) is the current CPCChongqing Committee Secretary. Until November 2007 he was Minister of Commerce of thePeople's Republic of China . He is the son ofBo Yibo , a Communistrevolutionary elder, and his rise to fame came from his tenures as the Mayor ofthe coastal economic hub ofDalian and subsequently theGovernor ofLiaoning . Bo is a representative figure for China's new generation of leaderswho are casual in front of the media, a shift away from the deeply seriousfocus of Chinese politics. Bo's charisma is known in Mainland China, Hong Kongand abroad, and since his installation as Minister of Commerce has become apolitical star.Early life
A native of
Dingrang inShanxi Province , Bo Xilai was born in July1949, the son ofBo Yibo (薄一波), one of theEight Immortals ofCommunist Party of China . Bo began work in January 1968 and joined theCommunist Party of China (CPC) in October 1980.During the
Cultural Revolution , when Bo was 17 years old, he wasimprisoned along with members of his family for five years, after which theywere placed in a labour camp for another five years. TheGang of Four were officially blamed for the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, promptingtheir release in 1978. During the Cultural Revolution, Bo's father wasimprisoned and tortured for ten years; his mother was beaten to death.Bo worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the
Beijing Second LightIndustry Bureau before he was admitted to thePeking University Department of History, majoring in world history, in 1977. He latergraduated with aBachelor of Arts degree. In 1982, he graduated from thePostgraduate Institute of theChinese Academy of Social Sciences with aMasters degree.Personal life
Bo married Gu Kai Lai in 1986, a prominent lawyer who was the first Chineselawyer to have won a public case in the United States. Her father, Gu JingSheng, a Communist revolutionary and General who led the 12.9 Movement thatpropelled China to unite against Japanese invasion in
World War II . Sheis also a descendent of the renownedSong Dynasty Prime Minister andPoetFan Zhong Yan.
They have one son, Bo Guagua, currently studying PPE at Balliol College,Oxford
Political career
Bo then successively worked with the Research Office of the CPC CentralCommittee Secretariat and CPC Central Committee General Office. Given Bo'sfather's authoritative position in the party, he decided to avoidallegations of
nepotism by transferring to one of the mostunderdeveloped counties in China and starting at the very bottom of thepolitical hierarchy. Bo thus became Deputy Secretary and Secretary of theJinxian County Party Committee in Liaoning. ThenDeputy Secretary and Secretary of the Party Committee of theDalian Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Secretary of the JinzhouPrefectural Party Committee in Liaoning, quickly rising through the ranks tobecome a member of the Standing Committee of the Dalian Municipal CPCCommittee, the city's decision making body. He became the Vice-mayor ofDalian in 1990, and deputy secretary of Dalian Municipal Party Committee.He took up the post of acting Mayor of Dalian in 1992 and then Mayor ofDalian in 1993. The modern city was built upon the colony of
Port Arthur during the late Qing Dynasty. He was elected asdeputy secretary of CPC Dalian Municipal Committee in June 1995, the city'ssecond-in-charge. In January 1998, he was re-elected mayor of Dalian. And inSeptember 1999, he served as secretary of the CPC Dalian MunicipalCommittee, the city's number one figure. His term in Dalian was marked bythe city's phenomenal growth into a modern metropolis representative ofChina's economic growth. TheShenyang -Dalian Expressway was built in theearly 1990s, becoming China's firstexpressway . Dalian has since thenbeen known as one of the cleanest cities in China, having won the UnitedNations Habitat Award, and has a very good overall reputation. However,despite the economic growth and significant improvements on GDP per capita,Bo's tenure in Dalian has sometimes been accused of focusing too exclusivelyon aesthetic development projects.Bo spent seventeen years in the city of Dalian, thus serving the longesttime in a single region among the officials of China. Although hispopularity with the people was well-known, he was denied promotion by thenPresident
Jiang Zemin . In January 2001, under the pressure of strongpublic opinion, Bo was transferred to the province as the vice governor,which happened to be equal rank to his municipal position. In the aftermathof the Liaoning 'Mu & Ma' corruption scandal, a major reshuffle of theLiaoning provincial government took place, and Bo was appointed the ActingGovernor of Liaoning Province. In January 2003, Bo was elected as Governorof Liaoning at the first session of the tenth Liaoning People's Congress.However, during the same year Bo was denied by the Communist Party CentralCommittee members a seat in the party's central leadership.Bo oversaw Liaoning's development into one of the most economically strongprovinces in China, and unlike his predecessors, was clean in terms ofmoving public funds and other allegations of corruption. Some accused Bo,however, of being fake, a "talker" rather than a "doer". [ [http://renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2003/12/17/29143.html Jiang's Clique: LowPublic Opinion"] ]
Minister of Commerce
Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin in the presidency in late 2003, andended Bo's 20 years service as a local official and Bo was appointedMinister of Commerce inWen Jiabao 's cabinet, replacingLu Fuyuan ,who had health problems with which he was unable to fulfill his duties. Boconcurrently served as a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee, inreality China's central decision making body.Known for his good looks, articulate speech, open-minded work ethic, and agenerally liberal outlook, Bo's phenomenal rise from a municipal official tothe Central government has been of great media attention and has sinceelevated his status to that of a political star. The archetype of apolitician Bo presents is seldom seen with a generally serious andconservative leadership in Beijing. He has a reputation of a Kennedy-esquefigure, his charisma known to media from the Mainland, Hong Kong, and evenabroad.
Bo's term as Minister of Commerce saw the general trend of attractingforeign investment continue. His daily schedule is dominated with receivingforeign guests and dignitaries. He speaks relatively fluent English, havingtold a not-so-fluent translator to rest for a while as an Americandelegation's comments were being translated into Chinese. In May 2004 Bo wasone of the few hand-picked Ministers to accompany Premier
Wen Jiabao ona five-country trip in Europe. Trade policy of the United States towardChina has also sparked significant controversy, during which Bo kept a coolhead as he headed for talks in Washington.Bo also oversaw the restructuring of the Ministry, whose formation was theresult of the amalgamation of the National Economics and Commerce Bureau andthe Department of International Trade. Bo sought to balance the amount ofattention given to foreign investors and domestic commercial institutions.He began tackling the imbalance from the retail sector, whose recent successwas largely owing to foreign companies. He drew out various plans to protectChinese industries so they would not lose their place inside the Chinesemarket.
Bo was listed in a
class-action lawsuit by a group ofFalun Gong practitioners and sympathisers in the United States, who were suing him forcrimes against humanity , including allegations ofgenocide andtorture . The lawsuit lacks factual evidence of Bo's alleged crimes, anddue to Bo's immense popularity inside China and abroad has failed to gainmuch attention or grounds for its authenticity. Bo himself states he hasnever been involved in the persecution and officially his position asgovernor rather than the Party Secretary of Liaoning means he was not incharge of dealing with Falun Gong. The legal process has since then beendismissed by the district judge in June 2006. Falun Gong enthusiastscontinued various other legal measures and their attack on Bo, especiallyafter he became the Minister of Commerce. The accusations has been supportedby Bo's political opponents based in Liaoning.After 17th Party Congress
It was widely speculated following the
17th Party Congress in 2007 thatBo would take over as party chief inChongqing . The transition, however,was not as smooth as previously planned. Bo took over the position onNovember 30 , replacing Wang Yang, who wassent toGuangdong . He also became a member of thePolitburo of theCommunist Party of China . His move from the Northeast to the Southwest isanother dramatic change for Bo in his political career.References
External links
* [http://www.chinavitae.com/biography_display.php?id=72 Biography and recentcareer data] at "China Vitae", an online biographical database of ChineseVIPs
*zh icon [http://www.pku.org.cn/data/detail.jsp?articleID=2547 Articleon Bo Xilai] at
Peking University 's online forum* [http://www.flgjustice.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=300&Itemid=257USA: Bo Xilai] – advocacy group "Justice for Falun Gong" on the class-actionlawsuit
* [http://info.china.alibaba.com/news/detail/v5000060-d5557745.html Alibabadetails Bo's charisma]
* [http://a-louie.com/content/view/47/2/ A Louie & Associates Article:Princeling Powering Up to the Top (2007)]
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