Bo Xilai, the former Politburo member and Party chief of the province-level city of Chongqing and the central figure in the Chinese regime’s most serious political crisis in recent memory, has been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party, according to state media.
Bo was found guilty of “severe disciplinary violations” in a report prepared by the Party’s internal investigative agency. On Friday high-level officials adopted the report’s findings and Party media announced Bo’s expulsion.
“He took advantage of his office to seek profits for others and received huge bribes personally and through his family,” the announcement in Xinhua said.
“His position was also abused by his wife Bogu Kailai [the name of Bo’s wife is actually Gu Kailai] to seek profits for others, and the Bo family accepted a huge amount of money and property from others,” it said. “Bo had or maintained improper sexual relationships with a number of women.”
The claims echoed in part those reported by Western media outlets since earlier this year, when Bo’s deputy Wang Lijun fled to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, triggering a political crisis whose fallout continues.
Bo was said to have “seriously violated Party discipline” at every waypoint of his career: while head of Dalian, a city in the northeast, while Party chief of Liaoning Province, while serving as the minister of commerce, while a member of the Politburo, and while Party chief of Chongqing, his last post. The specific violations were not enumerated.
Xinhua said that Bo’s case would be handed to judicial authorities.
One part of the release was vaguer than other parts, in stating that “the investigation also uncovered evidence that suggests his involvement in other crimes.” The “other crimes” were not specified, though Bo’s involvement in implementing the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice while head of Dalian and Liaoning, which involved arbitrary detention, torture to extract confessions, and forced labor, are well known. Sources have confirmed for The Epoch Times that Bo was also involved in the harvesting of organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience, a crime that evidence shows his subordinate, Wang Lijun, was closely involved in while under Bo’s watch.
Simultaneous to the announcement of Bo’s initial punishment, it was possible to search for the term “live harvest” (huozhai) on Sina Weibo, the most popular Chinese microblogging service. Sensitive terms, such as the names of Party leaders, or political terms, are usually strictly blocked. The specific phrase “live harvest” in Chinese is used almost exclusively to refer to the organ harvesting of living prisoners of conscience, primarily practitioners of Falun Gong. A search on Friday evening Beijing time produced nearly 25,000 results.
Searches for Gu Kailai, Wang Lijun, and Bo Xilai, were also unblocked.
Editor’s Note: When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing to participate in the persecution any longer. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.
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