China’s Shame
A total of 45 Tibetans set themselves on fire this year to protest Chinese repression in Chinese-occupied Tibet as “egregious” human rights abuses in China continued, according to an annual congressional report.
Bo Xilai
Intrigue in Beijing
The sentencing in China this week of Chinese defector Wang Lijun to 15 years in prison for seeking political asylum in the United States moves Beijing’s leaders a step closer to ending the most explosive political scandal in decades: What to do with ousted neo-Maoist leader Bo Xilai.
Wang on Trial
China’s government on Monday began the trial of Wang Lijun, the senior Communist Party police official who sought to defect to a U.S. consulate but was turned away, with a secret hearing in southern China.
The World Obama Made
As the media continue to examine Mitt Romney’s alleged “gaffes,” might we take a moment to take a look at the world as it actually exists, right now, independent of the presidential campaign?
Denied Defector Faces Trial
China’s communist government is preparing to file treason charges against a former official who sought political asylum at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu but was turned away to avoid upsetting U.S.-China relations, according to U.S. officials and Chinese reports. The former official, Wang Lijun, a Chongqing police chief and deputy mayor until his visit to …
Bo’s Base Visit Alarmed Leadership
Embattled former local Communist Party chief Bo Xilai’s visit to a military base caused alarm among Chinese leadership.
Broken Bo
U.S. intelligence agencies are closely watching China’s military for any signs of division or unrest related to the ouster of leftist leader Bo Xilai. The former Chongqing party chief, who promoted a return to hardline, Maoist-style communism and had close ties to the military in the region, was formally dismissed from the party’s ruling Politburo last week.
Bye Bye Bo
China’s powerful regional Communist Party chief in southern Chongqing, who was angling for a seat on the collective dictatorship that rules China, was ousted on Thursday, state-run media reported. U.S. officials and outside China watchers said the ouster of Bo Xilai, who was behind a Cultural Revolution-style revival of Maoism, signals high-level divisions within the Party hierarchy months before a major leadership change.
Leader of “Red Campaign” survives reports of purge
A senior Chinese communist party leader who dispatched armed forces to a U.S. consulate to head off the defection of a former police chief was shown on state-run television this week, a sign he has survived allegations of corruption. Bo Xilai, Communist Party leader in China’s Chongqing city, was shown attending a meeting of the ruling Politburo and sitting next to a senior military official.
