China’s central leadership has moved to bolster control over the southwestern city-province of Chong-qing after ousting its contentious yet popular chief, Bo Xilai (薄熙來), with state-run media yesterday urging officials and residents there to toe the line.
The demands for unity with the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s central leadership appeared in Chongqing newspapers that did not even mention Bo, who was removed this week after a scandal when his vice mayor, Wang Lijun (王立軍), took refuge in a US consulate last month until he was coaxed out and put under investigation.
Until that episode, Bo was widely seen as an ambition-fuelled contender for a spot in the next central leadership to be settled late this year. However, now the message to Chongqing officials and residents amounts to: Forget about Bo, even if he was China’s most high-profile province-level leader.
The Chongqing Daily reported that city officials on Friday effectively pledged loyalty to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Chongqing’s new boss, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang (張德江).
“All unanimously declared that they will sincerely embrace the central leadership’s decision on adjusting the municipality party committee’s leader and handling the Wang Lijun case,” the paper reported of a meeting of Chongqing officials.
“Do not disappoint the sincere expectations of the central leadership,” the officials were told, according to the report.
The failure to even mention Bo Xilai by name in state media was another sign of the fall from grace for a man who, unusually among China’s poker-faced leaders, reveled in publicity.
After arriving in Chongqing in 2007, Bo, 62 and a former commerce minister, turned it into a bastion of Communist revolutionary-inspired “red” culture and egalitarian growth, winning national attention with a crackdown on organized crime.
His self-promotion and revival of Mao Zedong (毛澤東)-inspired propaganda irked moderate officials.
However, his populist ways and crime clean-up were welcomed by many residents and others who hoped Bo could try his policies nationwide.
Chongqing newspapers said residents promptly embraced Bo’s successor.
“The broad mass of Chongqing residents resolutely support the central leadership’s decision and sincerely welcome Comrade Zhang Dejiang coming to work here,” the Chongqing Daily said.
“They are full of hope in Chongqing’s future development,” it added.
Many residents of the riverside city, however, voiced dismay at the dumping of Bo.
“It’s hard for us to understand this,” said Xia Hao, a businessman in his thirties. “The problem is that Chongqing had party secretaries before who came and left, like Wang Yang (汪洋) and He Guoqiang (賀國強), but nothing about the city changed much then.”
“But after Bo Xilai came here, we could see and feel all the changes, so people don’t understand what he did that was so wrong,” he said.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS