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No good deed goes unpunished; this must be what US Ambassador to China Gary Locke must have been thinking as a firestorm of criticism erupted over his embassy’s handling of the Chen Guangcheng case. Under great pressure, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner arriving for high profile talks with China’s leadership, the embassy and colleagues in the State Department including Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Kurt Campbell had negotiated a delicate deal with Chinese counterparts that Chen accepted. Negotiated with the involvement of top legal scholar Jerome Cohen, and based on a...

Neil Heywood death: Bo Xilai's son 'escorted from his home near Harvard university by US officials' The son of the Chinese power couple embroiled in the scandal over British businessman Neil Heywood's death was escorted from his home by US officials, as experts said he could obtain asylum in America. By Raf Sanchez, Boston, Jon Swaine in Washington and Matthew Holehouse 10:00PM BST 13 Apr 2012 Bo Guagua, the Harrow- and Oxford-educated son of Bo Xilai, was slipped out of his luxury flat near Harvard University late on Thursday night, in a pre-arranged pick-up by law-enforcement officers. Wearing a dark...

Unlike many other Democrats, he takes its side, reliably. The Democratic Party has always been weak on national security when it comes to China. But some credit is due when it comes to China’s atrocious human-rights record and its theft of American jobs. For a generation, prominent Democrats loudly criticized Beijing on these fronts, well before Donald Trump helped form a new national consensus on China. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have been longstanding China trade hawks, for instance. Even a socialist like Bernie Sanders has been a reliable critic. And Joe Biden? Well, he’s on China’s side — not...

A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth. Eleven million documents were leaked from one of the world's most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing. The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries. Gerard Ryle, director of the...

China braces for next act in leadership drama By Chris Buckley and Benjamin Kang Lim BEIJING | Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:02pm EDT (Reuters) - "We can't keep a lid on this," China's disgraced leader Bo Xilai was reportedly told by his police chief when the murder scandal now engulfing Bo's family first began to unravel. With a once-in-a-decade leadership handover months away, the Communist Party's elite must be thinking the same thing as they confront the first very public turmoil at the centre of power in more than 20 years. Revelations about the former Chongqing party chief issued by...

Dozens under arrest in China in connection with Bo Xilai scandal China has detained dozens people with connections to Bo Xilai, it was claimed as the Communist party pledged to "thoroughly investigate" the politician and his wife's alleged role in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood. By Malcolm Moore, Chongqing 5:40PM BST 18 Apr 2012 At least 39 people are thought to be being held, alongside Mr Bo, in the seaside town of Beidaihe, a favourite retreat for Communist party leaders. "The detainees include Xu Ming, who had a very special relationship with Mr Bo, and some of the...

Bo Xilai Alleged Financier: George Soros BEIJING: Billionaire oil tycoon George Soros, an executive board member of the International Crisis Group, has played a major role in deposed Chinese Communist Chongqing Boss, Bo Xilai’s rise to fame and fortune in Dalian and Chongqing. ... http://www.dallasblog.com/201204241008984/dallas-blog/bo-xilai-alleged-financier-george-soros.html

China ejects Bo from elite ranks, wife suspected of murder By Chris Buckley and Benjamin Kang Lim | Reuters – 9 hrs ago BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party has suspended former high-flying politician Bo Xilai from its top ranks and named his wife a suspect in the murder of a British businessman, a dramatic turn in a scandal shaking leadership succession plans. The decision to banish Bo from the Central Committee and its Politburo effectively ends the career of China's brashest and most controversial politician, widely seen as pressing for a top post in China's next leadership to be...

China: Two Incidents Open Pandora’s Box – Analysis May 22, 2012 By Bhaskar Roy Two incidents, one regarding Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, and the other involving a blind human rights activist and self-taught lawyer Chen Guangchen, destroyed the myth that the Chinese system is a well oiled machine. Policy, individual, and bitter factional rivalries are kept sealed from the public to ensure the Party’s inviolability. This is the biggest political quake the country has experienced since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. The new age of social communication, the internet, has also damaged the Party’s secrecy. Even people inside the...

Full Title - FUSION: Hakluyt & Company — with offices in London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney — was founded by an trio of former British intelligence operatives that connect to Hillary Clinton. Miss Trial via Thread Unroller

CHINA NEWS Updated April 26, 2012, 10:49 p.m. ET Bo's Son Ticketed in Porsche Boston-Area Traffic Stops Surface as Chinese 'Princeling' Seeks to Play Down Lifestyle By JENNIFER LEVITZ and STEVE EDER BOSTON—In an effort to dispel reports that he led a luxurious lifestyle, Bo Guagua, the Chinese "princeling" at Harvard and son of a deposed Communist leader, this week denied he ever drove a Ferrari. But Mr. Bo has racked up three traffic citations in Massachusetts—and according to a person familiar with the matter, he was driving a black Porsche. Mr. Bo is the son of Bo Xilai, the...

'Jackie Kennedy of China' at Center of Political Drama By JEREMY PAGE, BRIAN SPEGELE and STEVE EDER The wife of sacked Communist Party official Bo Xilai made quite an impression when she showed up in Mobile, Ala., 15 years ago with her young son in tow. Denver lawyer Ed Byrne, whom she had hired to represent Chinese companies embroiled in a legal mess in U.S. federal court, was struck by her brains, charm and beauty. Gu Kailai, he says, seemed like the "Jackie Kennedy of China." Gu Kailai was close to a British businessman who died mysteriously. . The business...

A French national detained in Cambodia, who has been linked to the scandal surrounding China's deposed politician Bo Xilai, will not be extradited, a minister said on Friday. Patrick Henri Devillers will, however, remain in custody. REUTERS - The French architect linked to China’s biggest political scandal in two decades and detained in Cambodia will not be extradited to any country, a minister said, adding another twist to a high-profile case already shrouded in mystery. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong gave no details on what grounds China had requested the arrest of Patrick Henri Devillers, whose whereabouts is unknown, but...

China's Gu Kailai gets suspended death sentence: witnesses By John Ruwitch HEFEI, China | Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:28pm EDT (Reuters) - A Chinese court sentenced the wife of ousted Politburo member Bo Xilai to death on Monday but suspended her execution, witnesses to the hearing said, ending one chapter of a scandal that has shaken the country and engulfed a leadership transition planned for later this year. The sentence means that Gu Kailai is likely to face life in jail for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood last year, provided she does not commit offences in the next two years....

Bo Xilai's wife 'was in the room when Neil Heywood was poisoned' Bo Xilai's's wife Gu Kailai, accused of murdering the British businessman Neil Heywood, confessed to police that she was in the room when he was poisoned, according to an account given to American diplomats. By Damien McElroy, Malcolm Moore in Beijing 9:00PM BST 24 Apr 2012 Wang Lijun, the former chief of police in Chongqing, told US officials that Gu Kailai had confessed that she was responsible for the killing with the words: "I did it." Mr Wang gave his account of her alleged confession to diplomats at...

Mr Obama was briefed immediately on the suspected poisoning of the 41 year-old, which Chinese officials are linking to Mr Heywood’s powerful political allies, when American diplomats were told of the murder allegation. Gu Kailai, Mr Heywood’s former business partner and the wife of Bo Xilai, a senior politician who had been tipped for the highest political office, is suspected of ordering the Briton’s murder in a case at the centre of a political storm in China. The couple have disappeared from sight as the Communist Party attempts to regain stability....... Mr Obama was informed of suspicions over Mr Heywood’s...

US President Barack Obama was told of the alleged murder of British businessman Neil Heywood before foreign secretary William Hague. The president was briefed about the 41-year-old's suspected poisoning within hours of Chinese police chief Wang Lijun walking into a US consulate to tell officials he was murdered. The decision to inform the President so soon after the killing of a British citizen overseas so soon after it happened was described as 'almost unprecedented'. John Tkacik, who worked for the US state department in China for 20 years told The Sunday Telegraph: 'This was a very high official with extraordinary...

The British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader's wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said. It was the first time a specific motive has been revealed for Neil Heywood's murder last November, a death which ended Chinese leader Bo Xilai's hopes of emerging as a top central figure and threw off balance the Communist Party's looming leadership succession.

Neil Heywood mystery: Gilded lifestyle of murder suspect's son Bo Guagua New pictures have cast a fascinating light on the privileged lifestyle and influential circle of friends surrounding the son of ousted Chinese Communist party leader Bo Xilai. By Patrick Sawer, Josie Ensor and Richard Eden 9:00PM BST 14 Apr 2012 A prime seat at the Beijing Olympics, nights out with Oxford friends, and a mentor at the heart of the British establishment – this is the gilded lifestyle of the son of the ousted Chinese Communist party leader linked to the death of a British businessman. These pictures shine...

Fearful Final Hours for Briton in China The day before his death in the fog-shrouded Chinese city of Chongqing, Neil Heywood sensed that something was amiss. The British businessman had been summoned on short notice to a meeting in Chongqing in early November with representatives of the family of Bo Xilai, the local Communist Party chief, according to an account by a friend whom Mr. Heywood contacted at the time. Mr. Heywood told the friend he was "in trouble." After he flew to Chongqing, he tried to telephone his usual contacts but couldn't get through to any of them, according...