Posted on 03/20/2012 8:04:07 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
Bo hosted Henry Kissinger at Chongqing’s huge propaganda festival aimed at reigniting revolutionary fervor and Party devotion....
Other Party leaders, apparently, saw Bo’s showboating as an attempt to build his own cult of personality, something that could threaten their collective leadership process."
Our Totalitarian Bankers behind closed doors.
Am I the only one here?
ML/NJ
How do they keep track of those goofy names. It’s hard to take it seriously.
With that group, the ‘Gotti’ syndrome comes to mind.
Wasn’t there a hit song called ‘Hey, Bo Xilai’?
“Wang Lijun’s foiled defection There is another likely cause for the timing of Bo Xilai’s fall from grace. It involves Wang Lijun, a high-profile protégé and political sidekick of Bo Xilai. As Vice Mayor and Chief of Police of Chonqing City, Wang Lijun had carved out an image as a fearless crime fighter, waging war on the city’s powerful Triad gangs and corrupt officials.”
This seems to be the key for me. Bo & Wang stepped on some well-connected toes, Wang got a visit from Moose & Rocko (or their Chinese equivalent) and tried to run. The connections run past Beijing all the way to Washington, and Wang was turned away. Bo is simply the other shoe to drop.
China appears to be somewhat unforgiving to those who rock the boat.
Bo was highly ambitious and charismatic. Many Politburo members resented and were suspicious of his growing power.
There has been a dramatic increase of income of workers in coastal areas around Chongqing and Bo’s government strongly supported investment from Taiwan firms.
Many Taiwan companies have come to Chongqing because Bo promised no change in investment policies.
It is suspected that Bo may have personally benefited from these new trade relationships and he is being investigated for corruption.
I think it possible that he may be tossed from the Poliburo and maybe even arrested. With his charisma and popularity that would throw China into a real potential internal feud.
This is a big deal.
Bo seems to have been pushing his own cult and toying with a new “cultural revolution” to deal with his opponents. Good thing he has been derailed. I hope it sticks.
Rumors of attempted coup overnight related to purge, via Zerohedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/andy-lees-china-coup-rumors
Additional article of interest:
http://freebeacon.com/bye-bye-bo/
“BYE BYE BO
Flamboyant China Party Boss Ousted”
by Bill Gertz
March 15, 2012
Thanks for the ping gandalftb.
“Coup” Banned on China Microblogs as Rumors Fly
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Created: 2012-03-20 16:25 EST
Screenshot of a photo posted on Weibo by Li Delin, who is on the editorial board of Securities Market Weekly. Li reported army vehicles on Changan Street in Beijing.
Monday evening and early Tuesday morning Beijing time, rumors began to appear on China’s popular Twitter-like microblogs that a possible coup attempt had occurred in Beijing.
The earlier messages related to military police gathered at Chang’an Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Beijing. Li Delin, an editor of the magazine Securities Market Weekly, wrote about seeing military vehicles, plainclothes police, and even iron fences set up on some intersections on Chang’an.
Other posts claimed that gunfire had been heard, and words like “Chang’an” and “gunshots” began to be censored on microblogs like Sina Weibo.
Rumors began to fly about military forces entering Beijing. Some netizens linked the rumors with the recently demoted Communist official Bo Xilai. They claimed that the military presence was due to infighting over Bo’s fate between Communist Party leader Hu Jintao’s faction, and former leader Jiang Zemin’s faction, including head of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee Zhou Yongkang.
Those rumors have not been substantiated. And at least some of the photos circulating of military vehicles in Beijing Monday night were later discredited. They were actually photos from a rehearsal for a National Day parade in 2010.
Tuesday was quiet in Beijing during the day, with media reporting that things seemed to be business as usual. Tuesday evening Beijing time, the word “coup” was finally censored on Sina Weibo.
The fact that the rumors of a coup gained traction so quickly after Bo Xilai was ousted from his position last week shows that Chinese netizens are closely watching the unfolding political drama.
But this was not the first time that rumors on Chinese microblogs became “news.” Last month, false rumors broke out that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had died. In January, Weibo rumors of a coup attempt in North Korea also made the news.
This time, the reports of a possible coup in Beijing may have even affected the foreign exchange markets—according to The Economic Voice, “Rumors of a military coup in Beijing has sent the USD higher once more and the Aussie dollar tumbling even further.”
Great posts.
To what effect did Bo’s anti-triad Chongqing campaign, headed by his police chief, Wang Lijun have in all this?
Loan sharking, gambling and prostitution businesses run by the triads are said to have been worth nearly $5 billion a year.
Bo and Lijun jailed hundreds of triad members and over 1,500 triad-corrupted officials.
Also, why would Lijun flee to Beijing, he could have tiptoed in found refuge in at least 4 embassies in Chongqing?
Did Lijun cut a deal with the Politburo conservatives to rat out Bo and perhaps tell all about Bo’s rumored property holding overseas, rumored to have been created by Taiwan business interests and triad families untouched by Bo and Lijun’s crime-fighting?
I think this is a showcase battle between Beijing conservatives, that want the Politburo to operate under collective leadership, and Maoist and leftist reformers championed by Bo.
Interesting that the leftist websites wyzxsx.com and Maoflag.net have been offline for “maintenance” since Bo was sacked.
Do crypto-RATS get ever “purged” in Republican Party “shakeups”? Do Republican Party shakeups even exist? Gus Hall could register as a Pubbie and be welcomed with open arms by the RNC no questions asked, $20 mill yearly donations from the Soviets that he received gladly accepted!
Thanks gandalftb.
This guy wanted to go back to pure communism and get rid of the market oriented reforms.
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