{"id":135202,"date":"2012-04-22T23:02:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T06:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=135202"},"modified":"2012-04-22T23:02:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T06:02:45","slug":"tracing-the-sources-of-bo-xilais-family-fortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2012\/04\/tracing-the-sources-of-bo-xilais-family-fortune\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracing the Sources of Bo Xilai’s Family Fortune"},"content":{"rendered":"
With allegations that former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai’s wife may have planned the murder of British associate and friend Neil Heywood <\/a>when he threatened to reveal the extent of her overseas assets, journalists are trying to parse together exactly how much Bo and his family are worth. Bloomberg has an extensive report looking into the finances and lucrative positions of Bo’s extended family<\/strong><\/a>, including his son from his first marriage:<\/p>\n \nLi Wangzhi, who had joined Citigroup after earning a master\u2019s degree at Columbia University, was the first son of Bo Xilai, according to two schoolmates of Li and repeated on an online publication affiliated with the Ministry of Culture. Extended family members of Bo, then commerce minister and now ousted Chongqing Communist Party boss, have also had positions in such firms as alternative-energy company China Everbright International Ltd. (257), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n While the accumulation of influence is commonplace among relatives of politicians worldwide, the Bo family fortune of at least $136 million may fuel perceptions of corruption in the Communist Party and deepen social tensions over China\u2019s widening wealth gap. The party has sought to cordon off from politics the investigations of Bo and his second wife, arrested on suspicion of murder, with an official commentary stating that the inquiry is solely a matter of law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe danger for them, the Chinese, is that the whole of the Politburo and their Central Committee colleagues will be exposed as a new property-owning class,\u201d said Roderick MacFarquhar, a Harvard University professor who focuses on Chinese politics. \u201cIt\u2019s already got out of hand. The problem for the regime is that it is now out in the public sphere.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Bloomberg earlier reported on the extensive business empire run by the sisters of Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife<\/a>. Government investigators have been dispatched to Hong Kong to look into the family’s wealth<\/strong><\/a>, AFP reports. As the Hindu reports, the Communist Party is focusing on the corruption angle of the case to divert attention from reports of Party infighting<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Reflecting concerns that the purge of popular and influential Politburo member Bo Xilai could trigger divisions within the party, the CPC has launched in recent days a massive propaganda campaign, using both official media and microblogs, to mobilise public opinion against the charismatic Chongqing party secretary who was suspended for \u201cserious discipline violations\u201d.<\/p>\n The commentaries have been seen as an attempt to present the Bo Xilai case as a clear-cut corruption issue and not, as widely believed, a reflection of factional political infighting. The message is that the party is serious on cracking down on corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government is saying that this is a corruption fight, and not a political struggle,\u201d Qiao Mu, Director of the Centre for International Communication Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University told The Hindu in an interview. \u201cThe problem is,\u201d he added, \u201cfew people believe that\u201d. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n