A handful of supporters of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) yesterday protested outside a courthouse in eastern China on the eve of his trial to denounce what they said was politically motivated persecution.
About 10 people held up signs outside the courthouse in the city of Jinan in Shandong Province, where Bo is set to appear in public today for the first time in 17 months to face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power.
The trial of Bo, 64, a charismatic and well-loved leader to some and a power-hungry politician to others, will cap the country’s biggest political scandal since the 1976 downfall of the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution and could sharpen rifts in a society already divided about his fate.
Photo: Reuters
Although there were only a few protesters at the courthouse, it was a sign that Bo still has a public following and supporters willing to risk being detained by security forces, who routinely lock up those involved in any sort of protest or unrest.
Police tried to move the small crowd of demonstrators away from the street, as dozens of journalists camped out in front of the main gate of the courthouse.
The protesters, who came from all over the country, held signs that said: “We’re watching the Bo trial to see if it’s fair and just.”
“When comrade Bo Xilai was put under house arrest, it was a violation of the party charter and when he was handed over to the justice system it was a violation of the constitution,” a protester from Chongqing surnamed Li said.
“This trial is illegal. We don’t believe in any outcome of this trial,” Li said.
Bo was the party chief in the sprawling southwestern metropolis of Chongqing at the time of his downfall last year.
There was no immediate sign yesterday that a secret session of the trial had started. Sources said on Tuesday that the charge of abuse of power against Bo relates to his flouting the authority of central leaders in Beijing, an allegation so sensitive that his trial could start one day sooner to hear it in camera.
The public support for Bo, though modest, underscores the difficulty the Chinese Communist Party faces in trying to both convince skeptics that Bo’s fall was not simply the result of elite infighting, and show the country that Beijing is serious about fighting graft.
Before his dramatic ouster, Bo looked set to join the upper ranks of China’s leadership.
After his appointment as party boss of Chongqing in 2007, he had turned the region into a showcase of revolution-inspired Maoist “red” culture, as well as state-led economic growth. Bo’s populist ways were welcomed by many of Chongqing’s 30 million residents — and others across the country.
However, his rise was stopped by a murder scandal involving his wife, Gu Kailai (谷開來), and his former police chief, Wang Lijun (王立軍). Both Gu and Wang have since been jailed over the scandal, which stems from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in November 2011.
Standing outside the courthouse, a protester from Beijing surnamed Li said: “Bo Xilai is not corrupt, Bo Xilai works for the people and is a good cadre.”
“Others have talked about serving the people, but they have just left the people hanging out to dry and not done anything practical for the people,” Li said. “I hope the Communist Party and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平) will support justice.”
A court spokeswoman in Jinan said that the trial will not be televised live, although the authorities will provide a press briefing when the court adjourns.
A Hong Kong-based broadcaster, Phoenix Television, reported on Tuesday that the trial would be televised live to reporters in a hotel in Jinan.
The last television coverage of a major trial in China was when state television broadcast excerpts from the trial of the Gang of Four in 1980. Jiang Qing (江青), the wife of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was removed from the courtroom several times after shouting down judges and insulting witnesses as she stood trial for crimes committed during the Cultural Revolution.
Bo’s son, Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), has urged the authorities to allow his father to defend himself at his trial. Bo is almost certain to be found guilty, given that China’s prosecutors and courts come under party control and courts have a 98 percent conviction rate.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all. Astronomers on Monday said that the probability of the two spiral galaxies colliding is less than previously thought, with a 50-50 chance within the next 10 billion years. That is essentially a coin flip, but still better odds than previous estimates and farther out in time. “As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated,” the Finnish-led team wrote in a study appearing in Nature Astronomy. While good news for the Milky Way galaxy, the latest forecast might be moot
RSS