Convicted of everything they could think of and then some, Bo is rumored to be spending the rest of his days locked up in Qinsheng Prison. With his wife given a suspended death sentence for the murder of Neil Heywood and Wang Lijun and his former right hand man in Chongqing serving time for an assortment of disciplinary breaches, the major players in the scandal have been quite publicly silenced. Unless Bo Guagua gets all Michael Corleone on the CCP that is.
Sending the message that dissent from the Party line isn't to be tolerated, the Global Times said that Bo's life sentence was anything but "empty talk", despite the fact that senior Party members haven't yet been formally investigated for their alleged roles in shifting large amounts of money from bank account to state owned company to offshore bank account (former Premier Wen, we're looking in your direction), the anti-corruption crackdown is continuing according to plan. Take a sip of that luxury baijiu that was left unattended on reception. Light up a Golden Panda cigarette (we're pretty sure they exist), help yourself to a 600rmb mooncake and think about the great job that you made of things.
Now think about how you're going to handle Zhou "The Bulldog" Yongkang. His son was recently picked in Singapore after spending time in the US, desperate to evade extradition by hunkering down with his wife. Conflicting reports of whether he actually got there or not have been circulating for some time, and there was a rumor that the senior Zhou would follow suit, but he has reportedly been placed under house arrest, while he helps the police with their inquiries.
Supporting Bo Xilai in his formative years hasn't served The Bulldog well, and now, pushing 70, he finds himself increasingly isolated, with official reports of his movements being scrubbed from state media. Former cronies Jiang Jiemin, Jin Jianping, Li Chuncheng, Guo Yongxiang and a close "business associate" Wu Bing have all been taken into custody.
In the irony of ironies, Xi seems now to be embracing the Maoist throwbacks that the previous administration has sounded comdemned. With all this talk of making sure that officials "pursue the mass line" and announcing at a recent PR event that Red China will never lose it's color, one can only imagine the trouble that he would be if he weren't the boss. The leaked Document 9 shows how much they're battening down the hatches, and it can only be hoped that Xi's offensive defense isn't going to backfire on him anytime soon.
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