Bo Xilai, one of China’s most high-flying communist officials and a contender for its top leadership, has been purged in the most significant political upheaval in the country in two decades.
A member of the 25-member Communist party politburo and the “princeling” son of a revolutionary hero, Mr Bo has been embroiled in a political scandal since early last month, when his handpicked police chief attempted to defect to the US claiming that Mr Bo was trying to have him killed…
“Bo Xilai is absolutely the most significant political figure to be purged since Zhao Ziyang in 1989 and in terms of impact, this event is potentially equal to what happened at that time,” said Cheng Li, an expert in elite Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution think-tank… (more)
