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发帖数: 4776 | 1 BEIJING (Reuters) - The Communist Party boss of China's southwestern city of
Chongqing, Bo Xilai, has been removed, state news agency Xinhua said on
Thursday, following a scandal involving a senior aide who took refuge in a U
.S. diplomatic mission last month.
ice Premier Zhang Dejiang will replace Bo, Xinhua said in a brief report,
and will also keep his vice premier portfolio.
Xinhua did not mention whether Bo had lost his seat in the Politburo
Standing Committee, the government's highest level body.
Bo, who has been a high-profile contender for top leadership, has been the
subject of much speculation since Vice Mayor Wang Lijun, his longtime police
chief, went to ground in the U.S. Consulate in nearby Chengdu until he was
coaxed out and placed under investigation.
The incident and the rumors it fanned have blotted Bo's prospects of
climbing to the Party's top ruling body when a new generation of leaders is
unveiled at a meeting late this year.
The 18th Party Congress will see China's biggest leadership transition in
nearly a decade.
Bo's abrupt removal implied that while he may be kept on in some position
until the party succession later this year, his chances of promotion were
finished, said Chen Ziming, an independent scholar in Beijing who follows
party politics.
"Now it looks like Wen Jiabao's comments yesterday represented the
leadership's collective view that Bo needed to go," said Chen. "This will
affect the leadership politics for the 18th Congress, because this opens up
new uncertainties about who is in contention."
Premier Wen added to the cloud around Bo at a news conference on Wednesday
by scolding the Chongqing government about the scandal, in the first public
comment by a member of the Politburo.
Calls to two Chongqing city government officials for comment were not
returned.
The interest in Bo on the sidelines of a parliament session, including a
rare grilling by foreign media at a news conference last week, underscored
how much he has stirred up the typically stolid Chinese political scene
ahead of that succession.
Chongqing authorities said last month that Wang had taken sick leave,
sparking speculation he had been purged and had sought asylum at the U.S.
Consulate in Chengdu.
Wang had been a key figure in a drive against organized crime that was
pursued by Bo, who has also encouraged a revival of socialist culture from
the time of Mao Zedong while seeking to transform Chongqing's economy into a
model of more equal growth.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Chris Buckley; Editing by Don Durfee and Ken
Wills) | k**u
发帖数: 10502 | 2 Bo is not a member of the Standing Committee, just a regular member of the
Politburo. |
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