Fascinating scandal with potential to destroy much more than the politician
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 10:55AM
Thomas P.M. Barnett in China, Citation Post

Fascinating twist to an already overwrought bit of political drama. Bo Xilai was the poster boy for analysts who predicted a Maoist, right-wing reaction to the growing sense among the princeling/coastal crowd that another wave of reform/liberalization is due (what "Uncle Wen" has been peddling for a while now).

While we will never know how he would have fared, absent the personal issues, in any such struggle, I still think he was going down no matter what and that this set of circumstances just made it easy.

But what's fascinating now is the extent of his privileged family's misdeeds.  This is the kind of stuff that opposition parties jump all over, but in China, because it's all one big Party, it must be simultaneously purged and condemned publicly and shoved under the rug. I think the awkwardness of this whole show may prove to be a turning point on thinking within the Party that ultimately it needs to create its own acceptable opposition before circumstances force it in a far more destabilizing fashion.

No, I'm not moving off my timetable of the late 2020s (although I'm always open to being pleasantly surprised). I'm just calling this out as a potential milestone on that path.

Article originally appeared on Thomas P.M. Barnett (https://thomaspmbarnett.com/).
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