Bo Xilai to be punished more severely than Wang Lijun: scholar
Staff Reporter 2012-10-30 16:22
Wang Lijun was sentenced to 15 years last month. (Photo/CNS)
Bo Xilai, the disgraced former party secretary of Chongqing, may be punished more severely than his police chief Wang Lijun, said a report from the Hong Kong-based newspaper Ta Kung Pao on Oct. 27.
Professor Feng Yujun of Renmin University of China in Beijing said that the difference between Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai is that the former voluntarily resigned from his position as a member of the National People's Congress — thereby giving up immunity from prosecution — while the latter was unseated at the request of the central government. This indicates that Bo was more uncooperative than Wang during the investigation into him, Feng said.
As Wang Lijun chose to cooperate, giving himself up to central government agents after his dramatic flight to the US consulate in Chengdu in February, Feng said he had given the investigators more space to deal with him leniently. "Leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist" is a traditional watchword of the Communist Party when dealing with its adversaries. Feng said Bo Xilai left no such option to the investigation team, as he presumably refused to admit wrongdoing from the time he was removed as Chongqing party chief in March.
For walking into the US consulate at Chengdu to seek political asylum and his involvement in covering up the death of British businessman Neil Heywood at the hands of Bo's wife Gu Kailai, Wang Lijun was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison. Gu was given a suspended life sentence for the murder of Heywood in August. Though Bo himself is said to have eventually confessed his crimes of corruption and abusing his power, Feng said it is still very difficult to say what penalty he will receive. For crimes much more serious than those of his police chief while holding a senior position within the party, Feng said Bo will probably be sentenced to 20 years or even life.
When Bo was originally sacked as Chongqing party boss it was still unclear how the party would proceed to handle his case, and it was conceivable he would escape unscathed due to his allies within the party and his status as the princeling son of Bo Yibo, one of the PRC's founding fathers. Yet on Sept. 28, Bo was officially expelled from the party and the charge sheet against him — including abusing his power, accepting bribes and a number of extramarital affairs — were openly reported in the state newswire Xinhua, leaving no doubt that the party had deliberated and finally decided to make an example of him. His expulsion from the National People's Congress earlier this month was the final step in stripping him of his immunity from prosecution.
