2012-02-12

Chinese political transition continues to grab headlines

Star mayor of Chongqing faces uncertain future
Huang Qifan, a close ally of the municipality's party boss, Bo Xilai, faces uncertain career prospects after reportedly being summoned to Beijing to explain why he led a convoy of armed police and police vehicles to besiege the US consulate in Chengdu on Tuesday in apparent pursuit of his deputy mayor, Wang Lijun, who used to be Bo's right-hand man.

Bo conspicuous by his absence in media reports
None of the major newspapers in Chongqing ran a picture of the municipality's party chief, Bo Xilai, with their front-page coverage yesterday of his meeting with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The omission raised further questions about Bo's political career, which was dealt a blow last week after the attempted defection of his right-hand man.

The banquet Bo threw for Harper on Saturday, as well as a meeting between the two, was the lead story for nearly all newspapers in the southwestern municipality yesterday.

But instead of featuring a typical picture of Bo and Harper together, the newspapers opted to run just a picture of Harper and his wife hugging a panda that will be sent to Canada or one of the panda alone.

A 1,500-word piece about Harper's visit in the Chongqing Daily, the municipality's party mouthpiece, did not mention Bo, although it gave other details of Harper's trip, ranging from visiting the pandas to trying to boost economic co-operation between Chongqing and Canada.
And his visit to Yunnan last week, in the midst of the Wang Lijun scandal, has been interpreted as follows:
The timing of Bo Xilai's visit to the 14th PLA Group Army in Kunming, Yunnan's capital city, has raised a few eyebrows, with some political watchers suggesting that he intended to use the trip to send a subtle message that he still has the backing of the military.

"It was a bit unusual for Bo to pay such an eye-catching visit to the army unit that was founded by his late father, Bo Yibo," said a police source in Chongqing who declined to be identified.

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