Home Tags Posts tagged with "wanglijun event"

wanglijun event

Bo Xilai, one of China’s most prominent politicians, has been removed from his post as Chongqing’s Communist Party leader, state news agency Xinhua reports.

Bo Xilai, 62, was a strong contender for promotion to China’s top rungs when the party changes its leadership later this year.

However, a scandal erupted when his former chief of police Wang Lijun spent a day at a United States consulate last month.

Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang will replace Bo Xilai, said the Xinhua report.

The move comes just a day after the end of the country’s annual parliamentary session, the National People’s Congress (NPC), where Bo Xilai’s absence from a meeting sparked speculations about his future.

After a long silence, Bo Xilai spoke last week about the incident involving ex-police chief Wang Lijun, answering questions from journalists at a meeting on the sidelines of the NPC.

Bo Xilai said he had not imagined Wang Lijun would run off. It came suddenly, he said.

“I feel like I put my trust in the wrong person,” Bo Xilai added, speaking at a meeting of Chongqing delegates.

Bo Xilai, one of China’s most prominent politicians, has been removed from his post as Chongqing's Communist Party leader

Bo Xilai, one of China’s most prominent politicians, has been removed from his post as Chongqing's Communist Party leader

Wang Lijun has also been sacked from his job as deputy mayor of Chongqing, said another Xinhua report following the earlier announcement on Bo Xilai’s removal.

Wang Lijun’s visit to the US consulate in the city of Chengdu sparked rumors that he had intended to defect. State media reported that he was on vacation to recuperate from stress.

Wang Lijun, who led the crackdown on organized crime in Chongqing that propelled both him and his boss into the limelight, was later placed under police investigation for the incident.

Premier Wen Jiabao, answering a question at a news conference on Wednesday at the closing of the NPC session, said ”progress” had been made in the investigations, but did not reveal details.

He said local authorities must ”seriously” reflect and learn from the incident and that Beijing regarded this ”very seriously”.

Reactions to the brief announcement of Bo Xilai’s removal from his post in state media have been swift. The news spread quickly, prompting thousands of posts on the Sina Weibo microblogging site on Thursday morning.

“Swift and thorough! The ultra-leftish stronghold has finally come to an end. It’s a big fortune for China, a big fortune for the people!” posted a writer for Xinhua.com, Wang Ruogu.

“Bo Xilai might have his personal mistakes, what he has been pushing for might be problematic… but he has truly done a lot of great things for the people,” said another comment by a former journalist.

Bo Xilai is the nearest thing China has to a Western-style politician, correspondents say.

Like China’s leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, Bo Xilai is the son of a famous communist hero, but he has gone on to forge his own unique public personality. Correspondents say the suave and charismatic Bo Xilai seems at home in front of the cameras and appears to enjoy pushing his policies in public.

Bo Xilai ran the big coastal city of Dalian and then became commerce minister, before moving to the post in Chongqing, a sprawling city in western China.

 [youtube JA3dslyx6i4]

The mystery surrounding Chinese police chief Wang Lijun from Chongqing has deepened after the US government confirmed he visited one of its consulates.

Some are speculating that Wang Lijun was seeking asylum, although the US state department said it could not comment on that issue.

Wang Lijun, 52, gained national recognition after spearheading a crackdown on organized crime in Chongqing.

But he was removed from his post and is now on leave because of “stress”.

One of China’s vice-foreign ministers, Cui Tiankai, said this was an “isolated incident”.

Speaking at a briefing, Cui Tiankai said this issue was “resolved and resolved quite smoothly”, although he did not go into details about exactly what had happened to Wang Lijun.

The incident could have ramifications for Wang Lijun’s boss, Bo Xilai, who appears poised to become one of China’s top national leaders later this year.

Bo Xilai has been one of China’s most high-profile politicians of late, launching a campaign that praised the virtues of the country’s communist past, as well as the crime crackdown.

The mystery surrounding Chinese police chief Wang Lijun from Chongqing has deepened after the US government confirmed he visited one of its consulates

The mystery surrounding Chinese police chief Wang Lijun from Chongqing has deepened after the US government confirmed he visited one of its consulates

There has been speculation for several days about the fate of Wang Lijun following a disturbance outside the US consulate in Chengdu earlier this week.

Chengdu is just a few hours drive from Chongqing, where Wang Lijun is also the deputy mayor.

People reported seeing swarms of police officers, who set up roadblocks outside the consulate.

Posting comments on Chinese micro-blog sites, some said a SUV-style vehicle with a Chongqing number plate was hauled away by the police.

Speaking in Washington, US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: “Wang Lijun did request a meeting at the US consulate general in Chengdu earlier this week.”

In carefully-worded comments she added: “He did visit the consulate and he later left the consulate of his own volition.”

Victoria Nuland said the state department did not talk about issues related to those seeking refugee status or asylum.

Wang Lijun was removed from his post as head of Chongqing’s police department last week and given other duties.

Then on Wednesday the city government’s news department said on its micro-blog site that he had gone on leave.

“It is understood that Vice-Mayor Wang Lijun, who has suffered overwork and immense mental stress for a long time, is seriously physically indisposed. After agreement, he is currently taking holiday-style medical treatment,” read the tweet.

Wang Lijun headed an attack on organized crime in Chongqing that saw hundreds of people arrested, including the former head of the city’s judicial authorities.

He is a martial arts expert whose crime-fighting exploits once inspired a television series.