Bo Xilai

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Bo Xilai
薄熙来
Bo Xilai
Official portrait of Bo
In office
2004 – present
Preceded by Lu Fuyuan
Succeeded by Incumbent
Born July 1949
Dingrang, Shanxi
Political party Communist
Spouse Gu Kailai

Bo Xilai (薄熙来; pinyin: Bó Xīlái; pronounced Beuh Shy'ii-lie) (born July 1949) is the current Minister of Commerce of the People's Republic of China. Bo is the son of Bo Yibo, a Communist revolutionary elder, and his rise to fame came from his tenures as the Mayor of the coastal economic hub of Dalian and subsequently the Governor of Liaoning. Bo is a representative figure for China's new generation of leaders who are casual in front of the media, a shift away from the deeply serious focus of Chinese politics. Bo's charisma is known in Mainland China, Hong Kong and abroad, and since his installation as Minister of Commerce has become a political star. His son currently studies politics at the University of Oxford, England.

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[edit] Early life

A native of Dingrang in Shanxi Province, Bo Xilai was born in July 1949, the son of Bo Yibo (薄一波), one of the Eight Immortals of Communist Party of China. Bo began work in January 1968 and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 1980.

During the Cultural Revolution, when Bo was 17 years old, he was imprisoned along with members of his family for five years, after which they were placed in a labour camp for another five years. The Gang of Four were officially blamed for the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, prompting their release in 1978. During the Cultural Revolution, Bo's father was imprisoned and tortured for ten years; his mother was beaten to death.

Bo worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau before he was admitted to the Peking University Department of History, majoring in world history, in 1977. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1982, he graduated from the Postgraduate Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a Masters degree.

[edit] Political career

Bo then successively worked with the Research Office of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and CPC Central Committee General Office, and served as deputy secretary and secretary of the Jinxian County Party Committee in Liaoning, Deputy Secretary and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Secretary of the Jinzhou Prefectural Party Committee in Liaoning, quickly rising through the ranks to become a member of the Standing Committee of the Dalian Municipal CPC Committee, the city's decision making body. He became the Vice-mayor of Dalian in 1990, and deputy secretary of Dalian Municipal Party Committee.

He took up the post of acting Mayor of Dalian in 1992 and then Mayor of Dalian in 1993. The modern city was built upon the colony of Port Arthur during the late Qing Dynasty. He was elected as deputy secretary of CPC Dalian Municipal Committee in June 1995, the city's second-in-charge. In January 1998, he was re-elected mayor of Dalian. And in September 1999, he served as secretary of the CPC Dalian Municipal Committee, the city's number one figure. His term in Dalian was marked by the city's phenomenal growth into a modern metropolis representative of China's economic growth. The Shenyang-Dalian Expressway was built in the early 1990s, becoming China's first expressway. Dalian has since then been known as one of the cleanest cities in China, and has a very good overall reputation. However, Bo's tenure in Dalian has seen the construction of various urban development projects aimed solely at making the city have a better aesthetic appearance.

Bo spent seventeen years in the city of Dalian, thus serving the longest time in a single region among the officials of China. Although his popularity with the people was well-known, he was denied promotion by then President Jiang Zemin. In January 2001, under the pressure of strong public opinion, Bo was transferred to the province as the vice governor, which happened to be equal rank to his municipal position. In the aftermath of the Liaoning 'Mu & Ma' corruption scandal, a major reshuffle of the Liaoning provincial government took place, and Bo was appointed the Acting Governor of Liaoning Province. In January 2003, Bo was elected as Governor of Liaoning at the first session of the tenth Liaoning People's Congress. However, during the same year Bo was denied by the Communist Party Central Committee members a seat in the party's central leadership, citing charges of nepotism against his father.

Bo oversaw Liaoning's development into one of the most economically strong provinces in China, and unlike his predecessors, was relatively clean in terms of moving public funds and other allegations of corruption. As governor Bo also saw increased attention from the media, which he did a fair job manipulating. Bo used the media to increase investment into Liaoning's urban centers, Shenyang and Dalian.

[edit] Minister of Commerce

Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin in the presidency in late 2003, and ended Bo's 20 years service as a local official and Bo was appointed Minister of Commerce in Wen Jiabao's cabinet, replacing Lu Fuyuan, who had health problems with which he was unable to fulfill his duties. Bo concurrently served as a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee, in reality China's central decision making body.

Known for his good looks, articulate speech, open-minded work ethic, and a generally liberal outlook, Bo's phenomenal rise from a municipal official to the Central government has been of great media attention and has since elevated his status to that of a political star. The archetype of a politician Bo presents is seldom seen with a generally serious and conservative leadership in Beijing. He has a reputation of a Kennedy-esque figure, his charisma known to media from the Mainland, Hong Kong, and even abroad.

Bo's term as Minister of Commerce saw the general trend of attracting foreign investment continue. His daily schedule is dominated with receiving foreign guests and dignitaries. He speaks relatively fluent English, having told a not-so-fluent translator to rest for a while as an American delegation's comments were being translated into Chinese. In May 2004 Bo was one of the few hand-picked Ministers to accompany Premier Wen Jiabao on a five-country trip in Europe. Trade policy of the United States toward China has also sparked significant controversy, during which Bo kept a cool head as he headed for talks in Washington.

Bo also oversaw the restructuring of the Ministry, whose formation was the result of the amalgamation of the National Economics and Commerce Bureau and the Department of International Trade. Bo sought to balance the amount of attention given to foreign investors and domestic commercial institutions. He began tackling the imbalance from the retail sector, whose recent success was largely owing to foreign companies. He drew out various plans to protect Chinese industries so they would not lose their place inside the Chinese market.

Bo was listed in a class-action lawsuit by a group of Falun Gong practitioners and sympathisers in the United States, who were suing him for crimes against humanity, including allegations of genocide and torture. The lawsuit lacks factual evidence of Bo's alleged crimes, and due to Bo's immense popularity inside China and abroad has failed to gain much attention or grounds for its authenticity. Bo himself states he has never been involved in the persecution. The legal process has since then been dismissed by the district judge in June 2006. Falun Gong enthusiasts continued various other legal measures and their attack on Bo, especially after he became the Minister of Commerce. The accusations has been supported by Bo's political opponents based in Liaoning.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Lu Fuyuan		 Minister of Commerce of
the People's Republic of China
2004–		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Zhang Guoguang		 Governor of Liaoning
2003—2004
Acting 2001—2003		 Succeeded by
Zhang Wenyue
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