Bo Xilai Charged with Bribery, Corruption, and Abuse of Power
Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai was charged on Wednesday with bribery, corruption and abuse of power, just under a year after his wife, Gu Kailai, was found guilty of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood. The filing of charges means that we could learn Bo's fate within the month.
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After Gu's conviction, it wasn't clear what charges Bo would face concerning a trifecta of allegations against him. Those allegations claim that Bo was taking bribes as a Communist party rising star, meddling in the homicide case against his wife, and had "improper" relations with several women, according to Bloomberg. After his wife's trial, Bo was expelled from the Communist party. Later that fall, Vice President Xi Jinping took over as China's new president.
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According to the Washington Post, Xi would like to see the drawn-out scandal resolved. But that task isn't simple:
President Xi Jinping has been facing internal pressure to put the case behind him and address the economic and social challenges facing the party.
It had proved a tough challenge for the new Chinese president. Bo, who has not been seen in public since he was fired as party boss of the city of Chongqing in March 2012, had been reluctant to cooperate and had not accepted the charges against him, lawyers and journalists said. A confrontational public trial was apparently considered risky, and powerful factions within the party had been uneasy about punishing Bo too severely.
Meanwhile, as China's leadership tries to write the final chapter of the the Bo scandal, one of the biggest to rock the country in recent years, it's worth remembering that it isn't the only high-profile scandal the country is currently dealing with.
