The Rotten Court of Shenyang

The authorities hadn't really banked on Xia Junfeng stabbing two chengguan to death and subsequently being speedily sentenced to be executed.  The social media platform that had served the Party so well - kinda - during the trial of Bo Xi Lai certainly didn't do them any favors, as his wife began blogging about Xia's last days to her followers on Weibo.

The case had been going on for some four years, the actual incident taking place in May 2009.  Steadfast, the judges rejected an appeal in 2011, and Xia had little else to do but to sit and wait on death row.  The execution was scheduled for Wednesday of this week.
The moment news leaked online, the Chinese Propaganda Department was quick to issue a directive to media outlets, instructing them not to "comment, link, exaggerate, or speculate" about the case, since the sentencing review was already complete.  Chinese netizens went into overdrive, the general feeling of anger directed towards the chengguan that had taken it upon themselves to pail the living shit out of him in front of six witnesses who confirmed Xia's story, only adding fuel to the fire.

Drawing the ire of the Weibo community, bloggers immediately drew comparisons between the case of Gu Kailai, Bo Xilai's wife who was given a 2 year suspended death sentence of the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.  Xia was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and was duly execute for his crime, Gu, on the other hand, confessed to murdering Heywood, and was given a suspended death sentence.  The idea that your sentence can be determined by your social standing in China's political circles quite understandably didn't sit too well with the masses.

Xia had always maintained that he stabbed the chengguan in self defense, and his wife claims that the beatdown was carried out because Xia didn't pay the 500rmb protection money that was demanded from all the street vendors on the same patch.  The ten men that administered the beating weren't allowed to testify in court, which meant that pretty much all the evidence came from the prosecution's side.

Going through the statements that the chengguan made, it's no surprise that the chengguan involved in the attack were banned from making an appearance on the witness stand.  One of them claimed that Xia had stabbed him in the thighs, but then said that he had to run after Xia to catch him.  A month later, the same man changed his story and said that he hadn't actually been stabbed, and had been stood behind the two unfortunates that Xia ended up stabbing to death.
That the chengguan involved didn't appear in court was key to the trial.  A number of procedural failings ensued, starting with the illegal detention of Xia, and an beating that he received whilst in custody.  Teng Biao, Xia's lawyer wrote in a Boxun blog entry:

According to several statements given by Xia Junfeng, the bald Chengguan first insulted him by saying, "How can you be so fucking good at pretending to be innocent." He then punched him on his head with his fists. He and another man punched and kicked Xia Junfeng, the bald man evening throwing a metal mug at Xia that he had picked up from a desk. It is obvious that Shen Kai and Zhang Xudong had committed more than just the offence of illegal detention; their behaviour at that time fell into the category of statutory aggravation, as it involved physical and verbal abuses.

Since the defence lawyers weren't able to question any of these men in court, Xia's statements are all that were presented.

Shenyang People’s Court doesn’t have the best repuation for justice. Teng Biao, the same lawyer who represented Xia during his trial was assaulted inside the court by their resident bulldog, Er Liang. Nicknamed The Gatekeper, he main role was to prevent petitioners from entering the building. During his stay in Shenyang in 2010, Australian Chris Jones accompanied his wife to the building a number of times while she was embroiled in a civil case. His blog entry doesn’t make for comfortable reading.

On one of our many visits we found an elderly lady stretched out on the first row of seats, nearest the security door and glass panel, she was incoherent and unable to move. Her 40 year old daughter was yelling at officials behind the glass crying and asking for help. She had bruises to her arms and face. The daughter told us that Heping District Court House Police had punched her and her 82 year old mother in this building. They had told them to go away and die. They would rape her 14 year old daughter they had said. I could not imagine how the old lady would have felt hearing such a threat made against her granddaughter and after suffering such a severe beating.

In 2002, Jia Yongxiang was convicted of bribery and corruption after it was discovered that he had spent a $4,000 employing a fengshui expert to choose the most auspicious date to open the new court building. Along with 14 other officials, he was arrested.  Jia and the deputy mayor, Mu Suixin were later executed for what the People's Daily called "taking massive bribes".

If the Chinese are expected justice true and fair, then rotten courts at the center of China’s legal system have a long way to go yet.

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Bo Xi Lai Launches Appeal. Might Get Own Talk Show.

You can't keep a corrupt Chinese Communist Party official down, and Bo just keeps on coming with his media appearances.  Not content with dragging out his trial for an epic five days, taking every opportunity to mouth off in front of the cameras (well, Weibo transcribers), the disgraced politician has launched his appeal against his life sentence today.

The guilty verdict that he received on Sunday effectively ended his career, but the old windbag just won't take the hint and go quietly.  Even when he was languishing in custody at the end of the trial, he wrote a defiant letter from his cell, saying that he would once again rise phoenix-like from the ashes.  Painting himself the martyr and comparing himself to his father, Bo Yibo, one of the founding fathers of the People's Republic, he wrote that

"I was dragged into this and really wronged, but the truth will come out one day.  Meanwhile I will be waiting quietly in prison.  Dad was thrown into prison multiple times in his lifetime and I will look up to him as my role model."

Uh.  Ok.

Bo's father was dyed in the blood communist who supported Deng Xiao Ping's economic reforms, but opposed any proposal to stray from the "democratic dictatorship" style of CCP rule - what would you expect from a man who was once Mao's swimming partner?  While making his mark in economic circles, Bo's son misfired with the Red Propaganda drive which is now en vogue now that it's been rebranded by Xi "The Boss" Jin Ping.  Possibly, Bo Junior is waiting until Xi passes away to make his move back into the limelight.  From prison.  In his old age.  Well, God loves a trier.

Given Bo Xilai's obsession with the media, and making a number of apparently unrehearsed outbursts in the court that tried him, one can only wonder what he's up to.  The smart thing to do would to be bow your head and take it like a man, but Bo seems intent on resisting the will of the Party to the very end.  He's already been sentenced to a cushy prison in the north of Beijing, so why appeal the sentence that he probably knows won't be changed.  Cementing his reputation as a media personality famous only for opposing the incumbent leadership isn't going to do him any favors in the future (such as it is), so what's with the new interest in painting himself as the enfant terrible of Chinese politics?  Maybe he just wants a hug.

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Xi Gives Bo Sentence the Seal of Approval. Now What?

Seeking to push through banking reforms at the upcoming Communist Party plenum, Xi Jinping has given the stamp of approval on the sentencing to life imprisonment of Bo Xilai.

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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Sun Wenguang: The Bastard Who Won't Stop

At 80, Sun Wenguang probably has the dubious honor of being China's oldest pro-democracy activist.  At sensitive times of the Chinese calender - the anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre, the anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquake to name but two - a guard is placed on duty outside his apartment.  During the Bo Xi Lai trial last month, a government rent-a-goon prevented his door from evening opening.

"I am, in their view, a bastard who just won't stop," he says, chuckling in his study late one night after his monitors had left"If my rights are infringed then I have to fight back. I can't just give up my rights."

Branded a counter-revolutionary at the height of the Cultural Revolution, Sun was sent to prisons camps across the country, and was locked up in 1974.  He used the time to contemplate the problems dogging China and it's Communist leadership.  His books, the first one containing essays he wrote on toilet paper using straw from his bed as a pen, eventually earned him a ban on ever leaving the Chinese mainland.

Unlike many from his generation, who've long since given up any hope of political reform in China, he carries on with a determination rarely found in the newer generation of activists.  Directly challenging the authorities instead of trying follow China's malleable laws, he is, as Hu Jia puts it, an icon for Chinese dissidents.

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Five Strangest Targets of the Anti-Corruption Campaign

Ridding the Party of hedonism and excess has given us a fairly sensible ban on lavish, expensive banquets held for minor guests of the state, and even veteran China watchers are feeling the pinch.  The nation's prostitution and liquor industries have been decimated. Rumblings from the lower echelons of the CCP hierarchy tell of daily Party directives detailing how multimillionaire politicians can act like a poor person are dispatched from Zhongnanhai (er, can we check this? Ed.).

Some of the items on the Do Not Buy List are a little odd to say the least, and one wonders how the princelings are really going to cope in this new age of austerity.  At best they provide an insight into actually how much officials got away with - one can only wonder what didn't make the list.

On the bright side, at least there's no danger of car pooling your teenage daughter with Lei Zhengfu.

TV Confessions Unnerve Top Execs

In throwback to the Mao-era public confession that defined The Cultural Revolution, the fashion for parading detained suspects, particularly high profile figures like Charles Xue might be good for Party propaganda but more lawyers are saying that the practice makes a mockery of the legal process.  Making an example of rumor mongers and those indicted on charges of corruption  send the required chilling effect through the business community and party cadres, coerced confessions do little to bolster confidence in rule of law.

“If involuntary to any degree, the admissibility of the confessions is in question,” said James Zimmerman, a managing partner at law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce China.

China commentators haven't been blinded to the idea that despite denouncing the Mao-era polices that Bo Xi Lai was criticized over in the last Party meeting seems now to have become de riguer .

Publicising confessions before a formal criminal process could reflect “a wider trend of returning to Mao-style criminal justice”, said Eva Pils, law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

 

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Bo Xi Lai Trial Transcripts - Weibo Users Make Their Own Revisions

Completely missing the point that censorsing court transcripts when you are trying to appear as transparent as possible, Quartz has a report on what exactly was left out of the official record on the last day of the trial of Bo Xi Lai.

Removing references to Bo receiving orders from superiors regarding the forging of Wang Li Jun's medical certificate, and threats from the disciplinary commission, official transcripts were published on the Jinan Intermediary Court's Weibo account.  Not content with the official version of events, Chinese netizens made their own revisions.

 

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Bo Xi Lai: Optimism on Trial

Cynics get a bad press, and nowhere is cynicism more prevalent than in China.

Almost daily, stories of some government official or other taking backhanders in a property development, giving his son or daughter a job they’re woefully underqualfied to do, endless tales of sexual abuse, impropriety and an assortment of other scandals could wear down even the sunniest of optimists.

The brazen twofacedness of Chinese politicians could break the spirit of Lei Feng himself, the passive aggressiveness of Chinese foreign policy apparently does more to contribute to Chinese development that global development and does nothing to secure China as a the world power that it pretends it is.

China is a country with problems, it's very true, and the Party has done much to make sure that the idea that the Communist Party and only the Communist Party can solve these problems (given enough time) has become firmly ingrained in the psyche of the average Zhou.

Thus the message of the leadership is that Chinese people should be optimistic about their future, and the future of their country, because the Chinese Communist Party is doing everything it can to improve the country, raise the people out of poverty, and put them on the right path to a socialist Shangri-La. And it’s the mindless optimism is exactly what China's problem is.

During The Cultural Revolution, everyone was paid a set amount of money regardless of the work that they did, and farmers dutifully went out into the fields and did absolutely no work, leaving the crops to fail and being paid for the privilege. These days the Chinese have more food than they can stomach, but it’s a famine of innovation that is plaguing the country. Copyright laws are flaunted, and opportunistic snake oilers copy Western ideas and products, knocking them out under substandard quality control, selling them for half the price of their western counterparts, and running off with the cash.

Confident that things will improve by themselves, the optimist contributes little, relies on the status-quo, and retires, happy that a days work has meant a days pay, and that the family has been provided for. The cynic recognizes the problems, the delays and the obstacles and work hard to overcome them, confident that at the end of it, there’ll be a bigger pay off that the optimist could ever dream of.

Writing in The Guardian, Julian Bagnini espoused the virtues of the cynical,

Perhaps the greatest slur against cynicism is that it nurtures a fatalistic pessimism, a belief that nothing can ever be improved. There are lazy forms of cynicism of which this is certainly true. But at its best, cynicism is a greater force for progress than optimism. The optimist underestimates how difficult it is to achieve real change, believing that anything is possible and it's possible now. Only by confronting head-on the reality that all progress is going to be obstructed by vested interests and corrupted by human venality can we create realistic programmes that actually have a chance of success. Progress is more of a challenge for the cynic but also more important and urgent, since for the optimist things aren't that bad and are bound to get better anyway.

China watchers have gotten a bad press during the trial of Bo Xi Lai, dismissing the whole thing as a scripted show trial that nothing good will come off.  It's easy to take the side of cynic with this one.  After writing a few self-criticisms and saying that they were really quite sorry for what happened, many of them have been let off the hook.  A few token sackings have been issued to keep the junior officials on their toes, but, by and large, the scandal has been limited to a few key players, with nothing of the reform that many believed would take place under Xi Jin Ping's governance.

One of the key factors in this almost universal dismissal is that the trial really isn't aimed at Chinese people.  To a certain degree, the whole thing is a PR event, you would be something of an optimist to believe that anyone is getting a fair trial in China, one just has to look at the ongoing debacle surrounding Li Tianyi's rape case to see that.

Bo's trial serves the Party in two ways.  In the first, it is intended to show-off the transparent nature of the usually opaque Chinese legal system to the outside world.  News coverage has been to tightly controlled to allow anything beyond the terse courtroom transcripts being published in the Chinese media.  Even though the proceedings were being tweeted via the Jinan court's Weibo account, no discussion was allowed, and comments on the news feed have been disabled.  Rule of law has been notoriously difficult to come by in China, and foreign companies love complaining about how difficult it is to do business.

By showing that not even high level officials like Bo are above the law (although when news broke of Wen Jia Bao's wealth in the New York Times, the newspapers website was promptly blocked in the mainland) the Chinese government seeks to placate investors wary of ploughing money into something that might get spirited away in some dodgy pyramid scheme involving property in Monaco.  Venture capitalists take risks for a living, but in a place that seems to offer no legal protection, not a penny will be spent on expanding a western brand into China.

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Secondly, the trial is intended to send the message to party cadres that corruption is a problem, and if you're in the wrong place at the right time, then you could end up in the dock.

Editorials from state-run media in China have been suggesting that eradicating graft entirely isn't possible, promoting the idea that the "level of corruption" should be brought down to a level acceptable to the public.  The Global Times editorial that drew most fire from China watchers was called (after a couple of revision by QQ.com to sex it up a little) The Public Should Understand that China Must Permit Moderate Corruption:

There is no way in any country to “root out” corruption. Most critical is containing it to a level acceptable to the public. And to do this is, for China, especially difficult.…  The public must also understand … the objective fact and reality that China has no way of entirely suppressing corruption without sending the whole country into pain and confusion. Fighting corruption is a difficult task in China’s social development. But its victory relies at the same time on the elimination of other obstructions in other areas of battle. China can’t conceivably be in a situation where it is a country behind in all other areas, but where its officials are really clean. Even if that were possible, it would not be sustainable.

Threatening the general public with the idea that graft is the lifeblood of China, and without it a return to the bad old days of civil war, famine and rule by warlords didn't win any popularity competitions with the Chinese people on Weibo either. Some users wryly noted that after moderate corruption receives the stamp of approval from the Politburo, moderate murder will be next.

Shanghai based journalist Adam Minter ended his analysis of the furor that followed the publication of the editorial by pointing out that no one had actually defined what "moderate corruption" was, leaving plenty of wiggle room for any politicians unfortunate enough to have people like Wang Li Jun as friends.

That the trial has apparently drawn so much in the way of cynical coverage is a testament to the international misfires of the Chinese government when it comes to promoting itself overseas.  While they've had plenty of practice selling the idea of Communist leadership pretty successfully to the Chinese, by their nature, western journalists are cynical.

Given enough prodding, some politicians will end up in front of a judge, there are a myriad other failings that the Chinese government is yet to even admit to.  Getting a politician like Bo Xi Lai to admit to taking backhanders while parents in Sichaun and still trying to get a straight answer out of officials who sanctioned the tofu building that so quickly collapsed with a massive earthquake hit the province in 2008 is quite simply too little, too late.  The failures of leadership and and the repeated lack of accountability by the CCP, accompanied by Soviet-era references to Marxism, Maoism and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics has done little to engender trust between foreign journalists and Chinese officials, and even less to bolster the image of the Chinese abroad.

The Chinese are past masters as manipulating fears and propagating their own noble crusades against unseen enemies that, according to them, seek to destroy the core values that every patriotic Chinese person holds dear.

Previously, the CCP has sought legitimacy by reminding people that things are much better these days than they were before.  Exploiting the bitter memories many have of the invasion by the Japanese and other foreign powers, while at the same time, making sure that everyone knows who it was that lifted the Chinese people out of abject poverty to become the world's second largest economy.  Embracing propaganda campaigns that are more borrowed from George Bush and his neoconservatives than from Mao, represent a more cynical move forward than the pessimistic step backward that many of Bo Xi Lai's supporters would've approved of.

 

Video: The Undoing of Bo Xi Lai

We've had accusations of insanity, Bo has changed what he previously confessed to, and challenged,the testimony and evidence against him.  The Chinese on Weibo have been pretty much split down there middle.  Official state media is preparing everyone from a guilty verdict, but professors (who should really know a showtrial when they see one) across the country are jumping on the pro-Bo bandwagon, declaring that evidence against him is flimsy at best.

The trial is probably the best hat we can hope for when it comes to Chinese politicians getting their come uppance, and much has been made of the details that have emerged in the last couple of days.  Coverage (ok, someone is reposting tweets from Weibo and Twitter, but still...) continues on several China centric sites

As the trial in Jinan enters it's unexpected third day, Al Jazeera has an edition of Inside Story dedicated to the disgraced politician:

As the high-profile Chinese politician Bo Xilai goes to court over a scandal that has divided the country, his spectacular downfall exposes the messy infighting in the highest echelons of politics. Bo's case lifted the lid on the inner workings of the secretive ruling Chinese Communist Party, and exposed a rift between some of its members.

So, how will the Communist Party wrap up this scandal? And what does this mean for China's transparency and Bo's future? T

o discuss this, Inside Story, with presenter Jane Dutton, is joined by guests: Victor Gao, the director of the China National Association of International Studies, who previously worked in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Roderic Wye, an associate fellow at the Asia programme at Chatham House; and Steve Tsang, the director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.

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Shaping Public Opinion: Managing the Bo Xi Lai Trial

The Chinese government is keen to stage manage what could be the most stage managed trial in history, as Bo Xi Lai appears in the dock in Jinan today.

The only first hand coverage of the courtroom comes from official photos, news anchors and cameramen are relying on tweets from Weibo to provide commentary.

Censors are stuck with a difficult balancing act - the Party needs to show that it's cracking down with swift and unerring justice on those who take bribes, but they need to create as much positive buzz around the trial as possible.

Comparisons with the Gang of Four trial have been inevitably drawn, with commentators noting that in that trial, proceedings were broadcast across the country, but Jiang Qiang took the opportunity to exploit the media coverage to her own ends.  Given the large number of supporters that have gathered outside the courtroom, authorities were understandably reluctant to give  Bo an open mike.

Events that attract massive amounts of public interest, both in China and abroad are a key part of the CCP's charm offensive.  Maintaining a tight grip on the official media outlets to satisfy the Politburo that it's done a good job all round does little to inspire confidence in what should be a golden opportunity for a CCP reboot.

 

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Bo's Conspiritors Still Surviving

Though Bo Xi Lai may be standing trial, and Wang Li Jun is incarcerated for 15 years, not much has been heard of the others that were involved in Bo's wheeling and dealing in Chongqing.  With some quick thinking and a lot of apologising, senior cadres in Chongqing are escaping trial, showing the uncertainty with which the Party is progressing with it's supposed crackdown on graft.

Wen Jia Bao was especially critical of the Chongqing party secretariat, reminding everyone who'd listen in one of his final speeches that a return to the more right-wing, Maoist era politicking that Bo was fond of would be a disaster for the country.  Ironically, it was a Mao era self-criticism that saved Huang's skin.  Part confession, part denouncement, it served to distance him from Bo's antics, and secure his future.

In the good old days, the mayor of the city, Huang Qi Fan described the relationship he was with his boss, Bo, as "like fish and water", neatly fitting in with Hu Jin Tao's "harmonious society" schtick.  Finding out exactly how fast your friends can forget you in Chinese politics,  and Huang wasted no time in denouncing Bo and his ilk, promising that the excesses of his reign will never be repeated.  Although a few junior heads have rolled, the Global Times take on corruption seems to be ringing truer than ever - corruption doesn't need to be eradicated, just brought down to a level that is acceptable to the people.

 

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Forensic Officer in Heywood Case Resigns

Wang Xue Mei,  one of the most senior forensic experts at China's Supreme People's Procuratorate, has resigned.

Denouncing the evidence and final verdict that was passed in the investigation into the death of 22-year-old Ma Yue in 2010 she said that "the status quo of the forensic team is very disappointing, and even despairing."

The trial of Bo Xi Lai and the conviction of his wife, Gu Kai Lai for the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood isn't mentioned in the official statement that announces her departure, blame is placed on the electrocution Yue, whose case, officially, will not be considered for criminal prosecution for her resignation.  Ms. Wang described the verdict as "absurd and irresponsible."

For two years, Yue's mother had collected signatures for a petition asking the government to improve subway safety following the accident.  She was arrested by police in 2012 in Fuxingmen.  Speaking to the Global Times, Zi Xiangdong, the media officer of the Municipal Public Security Bureau said "Her son being electrocuted to death is one thing. The measure she used for gathering signatures and making an impact is another. It has disturbed the social order."

In 2012, she spoke out about Neil Heywoods death, saying that he was murdered to stop him from revealing a "unspeakable" and "complicated" secret, describing the official account of his death as "absurd".

Bo Xi Lai's wife Gu Kai Lai was officially convicted of Heywood's murder, and Bo himself is due to stand trial, accused of major disciplinary violations and corruption charges.

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