Following his role in the Chongqing corruption crackdown, Bo Xilai is expected to be the focus of attention at this week’s National People’s Congress meetings. From AP:
Chongqing Communist Party boss Bo Xilai is riding a wave of popularity for the anti-gang crusade in the boisterous Yangtze River city that saw dozens of law enforcement officials arrested for collusion. State media have gushed about Bo’s resolve in editorials.
The party’s official People’s Daily newspaper named him “Man of the Year” in an online poll, and a homemade music video by an unemployed crooner that popped up on the Internet last month praised Bo as “someone to count on.”
The challenge for Bo is whether he can turn this Rudy Giuliani-like popularity into a spot in the Communist Party leadership’s inner circle. The party-dominated national legislature opens its staged annual session Friday to review government policies and rubber stamp two laws. This year’s session of the National People’s Congress also marks the unofficial start of the campaign season for 2012 when most of the current leadership is due to retire.
For Bo and other candidates, the congress session provides a crucial burst of national media exposure and an opportunity to build relationships with the nearly 3,000 legislative deputies drawn from the national and provincial bureaucracies and the military.
“Hello, Bo Xilai!… Bo Xilai, Bo Xilai, you are the hero of a peaceful era!”
Read more about Bo Xilai via CDT.
