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The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo
When news of the murder trial of prominent Communist Party leader Bo Xilai's wife reached Western attention, it was apparent that, as with many events in the secretive upper echelons of Chinese politics, there was more to the story. Now, as the Party's 18th National Congress oversees the biggest leadership transition in decades, and installs the Bo family's long-time rival Xi Jinping as president, China's rulers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep their poisonous internal divisions behind closed doors.
Bo Xilai's breathtaking fall from grace is an extraordinary tale of excess, murder, defection, political purges and ideological clashes going back to Mao himself, as the princeling sons of the revolutionary heroes ascend to control of the Party. China watcher John Garnaut examines how Bo's stellar rise through the ranks troubled his more reformist peers, as he revived anti-'capitalist roader' sentiment, even while his family and associates enjoyed the more open economy's opportunities. Amid fears his imminent elevation to the powerful Standing Committee was leading China towards another destructive Cultural Revolution, have his opponents seized their chance now to destroy Bo and what he stands for? The trigger was his wife Gu Kailai's apparently paranoid murder of an English family friend, which exposed the corruption and brutality of Bo's outwardly successful administration of the massive city of Chongqing. It also led to the one of the highest-level attempted defections in Communist China's history when Bo's right-hand man, police chief Wang Lijun, tried to escape the ruins of his sponsor's reputation.
Garnaut explains how this incredible glimpse into the very personal power struggles within the CCP exposes the myth of the unified one-party state. With China approaching super-power status, today's leadership shuffle may set the tone for international relations for decades. Here, Garnaut reveals a particularly Chinese spin on the old adage that the personal is political.
Bo Xilai's breathtaking fall from grace is an extraordinary tale of excess, murder, defection, political purges and ideological clashes going back to Mao himself, as the princeling sons of the revolutionary heroes ascend to control of the Party. China watcher John Garnaut examines how Bo's stellar rise through the ranks troubled his more reformist peers, as he revived anti-'capitalist roader' sentiment, even while his family and associates enjoyed the more open economy's opportunities. Amid fears his imminent elevation to the powerful Standing Committee was leading China towards another destructive Cultural Revolution, have his opponents seized their chance now to destroy Bo and what he stands for? The trigger was his wife Gu Kailai's apparently paranoid murder of an English family friend, which exposed the corruption and brutality of Bo's outwardly successful administration of the massive city of Chongqing. It also led to the one of the highest-level attempted defections in Communist China's history when Bo's right-hand man, police chief Wang Lijun, tried to escape the ruins of his sponsor's reputation.
Garnaut explains how this incredible glimpse into the very personal power struggles within the CCP exposes the myth of the unified one-party state. With China approaching super-power status, today's leadership shuffle may set the tone for international relations for decades. Here, Garnaut reveals a particularly Chinese spin on the old adage that the personal is political.
132 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 12, 2013
By Peter Thal Larsen
Sometime in the next few months, Bo Xilai is expected to stand trial in the most high-profile political prosecution in China for over three decades. The former Chongqing party chief, once a contender to join the inner core of China’s leadership, stands accused of corruption, abuse of power and - more prosaically - “improper sexual relations” with women.
The criminal accusations, though, are only part of a more momentous story: the intense multi-generation fight for control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. It is that story that John Garnaut, the China correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian newspapers, attempts to unravel in “The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo”.
Though the details of Bo’s trial are something of a state secret - last month, journalists vainly rushed to the southern city of Guiyang following rumours the case was due to be heard there - a guilty verdict seems beyond doubt. Bo’s conviction will follow that of his wife, Gu Kailai, who admitted pouring a fatal cyanide solution down the throat of British businessman Neil Heywood in 2011.
The graphic details of his death sparked a global eruption of speculation. But this short but compelling e-book relegates Heywood to a walk-on part. Garnaut points out that Heywood’s death and hasty cremation remained unremarked until Wang Lijun - Chongqing’s police chief and Bo’s close ally - took refuge in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and confessed to helping cover up the murder.
Wang’s flight was probably sparked by a Beijing probe into his overenthusiastic role in helping Bo assert his authority on Chongqing. The pursuit of Wang was designed to undermine Bo.
Why was Bo deemed such a threat? The struggle stretches back to his father, Bo Yibo, one of a group of party leaders surrounding Deng Xiaoping. Garnaut places the elder Bo and his son in a hard-line tradition at odds with more progressive policies, most recently articulated by Wen Jiabao, China’s outgoing premier. Bo’s heritage was evident in his trumpeting of the so-called “Chongqing model” - a mixture of headlong economic expansion, suppression of dissent, and Mao-era sloganeering.
As Garnaut acknowledges, political alliances and rivalries in China defy simple labels. China-watchers often talk of “princelings”, the offspring of revolutionary heroes, as a single group. Both Bo Xilai and Xi Jinping, the party’s new leader, fall in this category, yet it seems Xi viewed Bo as a threat to his own ascent. Political ideas are equally slippery. The word “reform” defies simple categorisation in the context of a party whose overriding goal is to retain its grip on power.
The book, first published last autumn, was clearly written in a hurry. Much of the early material is poorly organised - multiple characters and their sometimes complex connections are introduced without clear explanation. Garnaut also mixes conventional journalistic sourcing with fly-on-the-wall accounts of meetings. Yet he offers a compelling sketch of the chaos and corruption of Chongqing, and the violence, expropriation and forced confessions that characterised Bo and Wang’s campaign to bend the metropolis to their will.
In summary, Garnaut offers a rough draft of the latest chapter in the improbable history of China’s Communist Party: “that great black box that conceals the struggles, brutality, partial truths and outright fabrications upon which China has built its staggering economic and social transformation.” If and when Bo Xilai eventually takes the stand, the background provided by this book will prove invaluable.
Sometime in the next few months, Bo Xilai is expected to stand trial in the most high-profile political prosecution in China for over three decades. The former Chongqing party chief, once a contender to join the inner core of China’s leadership, stands accused of corruption, abuse of power and - more prosaically - “improper sexual relations” with women.
The criminal accusations, though, are only part of a more momentous story: the intense multi-generation fight for control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. It is that story that John Garnaut, the China correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian newspapers, attempts to unravel in “The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo”.
Though the details of Bo’s trial are something of a state secret - last month, journalists vainly rushed to the southern city of Guiyang following rumours the case was due to be heard there - a guilty verdict seems beyond doubt. Bo’s conviction will follow that of his wife, Gu Kailai, who admitted pouring a fatal cyanide solution down the throat of British businessman Neil Heywood in 2011.
The graphic details of his death sparked a global eruption of speculation. But this short but compelling e-book relegates Heywood to a walk-on part. Garnaut points out that Heywood’s death and hasty cremation remained unremarked until Wang Lijun - Chongqing’s police chief and Bo’s close ally - took refuge in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and confessed to helping cover up the murder.
Wang’s flight was probably sparked by a Beijing probe into his overenthusiastic role in helping Bo assert his authority on Chongqing. The pursuit of Wang was designed to undermine Bo.
Why was Bo deemed such a threat? The struggle stretches back to his father, Bo Yibo, one of a group of party leaders surrounding Deng Xiaoping. Garnaut places the elder Bo and his son in a hard-line tradition at odds with more progressive policies, most recently articulated by Wen Jiabao, China’s outgoing premier. Bo’s heritage was evident in his trumpeting of the so-called “Chongqing model” - a mixture of headlong economic expansion, suppression of dissent, and Mao-era sloganeering.
As Garnaut acknowledges, political alliances and rivalries in China defy simple labels. China-watchers often talk of “princelings”, the offspring of revolutionary heroes, as a single group. Both Bo Xilai and Xi Jinping, the party’s new leader, fall in this category, yet it seems Xi viewed Bo as a threat to his own ascent. Political ideas are equally slippery. The word “reform” defies simple categorisation in the context of a party whose overriding goal is to retain its grip on power.
The book, first published last autumn, was clearly written in a hurry. Much of the early material is poorly organised - multiple characters and their sometimes complex connections are introduced without clear explanation. Garnaut also mixes conventional journalistic sourcing with fly-on-the-wall accounts of meetings. Yet he offers a compelling sketch of the chaos and corruption of Chongqing, and the violence, expropriation and forced confessions that characterised Bo and Wang’s campaign to bend the metropolis to their will.
In summary, Garnaut offers a rough draft of the latest chapter in the improbable history of China’s Communist Party: “that great black box that conceals the struggles, brutality, partial truths and outright fabrications upon which China has built its staggering economic and social transformation.” If and when Bo Xilai eventually takes the stand, the background provided by this book will prove invaluable.
March 18, 2013
The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo is a real-life political thriller. It tells the story of how the unfettered political ambition of a 'princeling' in the Chinese leadership, Bo Xilai, aided by his intelligent and ambitious wife Gu Kailai, managed to convince the world that he'd found a way to be a successful, contemporary leader of an economically dynamic city (Chongqing) and a true believer in the Maoist legacy. It was only after an Englishman was murdered that the story began to unravel, exposing a horrific, bloody tale of torture, executions, greed and corruption that even by Chinese standards has been remarkable. John Garnaut, a long-term China correspondent for Australia's Fairfax press, writes well and vividly, and calls on an impressive range of sources. I wish his editors had been as careful - the book has a number of typos and other little errors that should have been shaken out well before it got to print.
November 27, 2013
Exemplary model of investigative journalism, not sparing any scandalous details behind the powerful Bo clan. In a country where politicians' lives are often shrouded in mystery, thanks in part to the heavy-handedness of the Chinese security and censorship apparatus, the author not only manages to excavate truths of the Chinese politics, an achievement comparable to rummaging through bottomless haystack for a needle (to quote a Chinese saying), but applied an extremely objective lens in prophesying the imminent return of the Bo political clan.
January 20, 2013
I especially appreciated Garnaut's in-depth research into the oligarchic rivalries stretching back as far as the purge of Gao Gang in the 1950's. Not often does a wesern China hand illustrate so clearly the "politics is personal" principle in Chinese top ranks of Party officials. Excellent work. Very poor copy-editing by Penguin, however, which in such a short book isn't rationalized by the news-pressure to publish.
August 1, 2013
The usual work for John Garnaut. If you read any of his hard-hitting, incisive work in Foreign Policy, you'll know what I'm talking about. Somehow he has deeply entrenched sources within the Party and he tells the story of Bo like none other. If you want to understand more about Bo Xilai's rise and fall... this is the book for you.
He's apparently working on a new book about China's Princelings and I'm quite excited!
He's apparently working on a new book about China's Princelings and I'm quite excited!
December 29, 2018
ku ingat membeli buku ini bersama Mama Saga @ariekurniawaty di #BBW Kuala Lumpur tahun 2017. Bukunya lalu aku tumpuk begitu saja di pojok kamar dan baru sadar sebulan yang lalu kalau aku sudah malas membaca fiksi. Ternyata seri #PenguinsSpecial ini sedikit berbeda dari seri sejarah biasa yang warna hitam/orange yang sudah aku miliki sebelumnya. Sejarah modern keluarga Bo diungkap dengan bahasa 'pers' yang sering kita baca di The Economists atau bagi kalian yang sering baca China Sunday Morning Post pasti akan familiar. Walaupun sebenarnya aku tidak terlalu percaya Media Barat menarasikan China dengan bahasa Inggris sebab Ibu selalu bilang bahwa bahasa Mandarin punya beritanya sendiri. Namun untuk melihat bagaimana Barat mengkonstruksi liberalisme dan Post-Maois nya keluarga Bo, cukup menarik.
March 17, 2020
A book containing content that's well worth re-reading, especially for anyone interested in modern Chinese politics. Copy-editor could have done a better job though.
April 16, 2020
Good short read, written in easy-to-digest and interesting style. I think it is quite insightful and generally information is presented objectively without significant bias.
November 18, 2012
It was really really interesting reading about the Bo family's and their behavior trough the years, specially these last years in Chongking where, he did whatever he wanted. Now his long time enemy is the new China president and his wife is in jail for killing an English family friends, his son is in the U.S. and I wonder how many times can the Bo family rise again.
E' stato veramente interessante avere questo spaccato della vita politica cinese di solito schermata ai più. Con l'assassinio di uno straniero, un inglese, da parte della moglie di Bo, a quest ultimo sono state "tagliate le gambe" mentre stava per ostacolare l'attuale presidente cinese per la corsa al potere. Una tempistica eccezionale senza dubbio, ma niente succede per caso. Vediamo se anche stavolta la famiglia Bo risorgerà dalle ceneri.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND PENGUIN SPECIALS/PENGUIN BOOKS AUSTRALIA FOR THE PREVIEW
E' stato veramente interessante avere questo spaccato della vita politica cinese di solito schermata ai più. Con l'assassinio di uno straniero, un inglese, da parte della moglie di Bo, a quest ultimo sono state "tagliate le gambe" mentre stava per ostacolare l'attuale presidente cinese per la corsa al potere. Una tempistica eccezionale senza dubbio, ma niente succede per caso. Vediamo se anche stavolta la famiglia Bo risorgerà dalle ceneri.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND PENGUIN SPECIALS/PENGUIN BOOKS AUSTRALIA FOR THE PREVIEW
February 28, 2013
A generally compelling account of Bo's rise and fall. At times I wanted to cry out "footnotes!" as a lot of the material seems to be from anonymous sources that may or may not be reliable, or could even have been simply made up by Garnaut. But still this book contains a lot of interesting information. There are quite a few grammatical errors though, and many of the end-notes that are provided are just to articles on the Internet whose web addresses may have changed or become broken links.
August 19, 2013
Still a basic text and easy read for non-Sinologues as we watch the unfolding of the Bo Xilai trial in China. As it is really a showdown between powerful modern-day Chinese oligarchic warlord-types dressed up as revolutionary scions, you need to know the background going back to the 1950's to watch the struggle play out.
Quick and informative, this book needs one more edit for typos, but good work, Garnaut for getting in so deep, so fast.
Quick and informative, this book needs one more edit for typos, but good work, Garnaut for getting in so deep, so fast.
September 20, 2013
A great read - what a story! The book also showed up to me that I could do to learn a whole lot more about Chinese political history and its players. As an anglo, at times I wished for a physical map and a map of political relationships past and present. I also felt for the author for the poor grammatical editing. His publisher could have done better for him.
July 8, 2013
A unique trip deep into the bowels of the Chinese state. With Richard McGregor's The Party, a must-read for China watchers.
August 10, 2013
Garnaut's terrific extension of his reporting on the Bo Xilai case - the definitive work so far on the case
February 19, 2017
This is a relatively short book but utterly fascinating if you are interested in the intrigues of Chinese politics. Highly recommended!
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June 18, 2014Oh Gossips
July 26, 2019
A perfect read for the flight from HK to Taipei. Great insight on the trials and tribulations of rising to the top in China.
April 13, 2016
A valuable retelling of the history of China's current princes.
December 20, 2012
Good inside stuff on the families involved.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews