Bo Xilia given life in prison

[UglyCasanova]

I have to admit I'm a little surprised.

I figured they would do this show trial which would amount to nothing and 3 years from now he'd be walking the streets again. And who knows, he still might, but this should send some chills throughout the communist party structure.

 

[yllus]

Why would they ever want to see him released? So they can have a previously incredibly powerful enemy running around figuring out how to slit their throats? He was gone for good the second he was arrested.

 

[shira]

I have to admit I'm a little surprised.

I figured they would do this show trial which would amount to nothing and 3 years from now he'd be walking the streets again. And who knows, he still might, but this should send some chills throughout the communist party structure.

Actually, the "show trial" aspect of this is that it was already determined that he would be found guilty and what his punishment would be before the trial was ever started. And the prediction was that the punishment would be pretty harsh, since Bo was a rival to Xi Jinping.

Of course, the hypocrisy of all this is that pretty much everyone knows that all of the top officials of the Communist party are every bit as corrupt as Bo. But Bo became vulnerable after the very public "defection" of his Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun.

 

[mshan]

http://www.economonitor.com/blog/2013/09/the-real-bo-xilai-story-or-chicago-on-the-yangtze/

Wonder if he is allowed to have his own butler in prison like this Wall Street insider trader: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Rajaratnam

 

[kage69]

Pretty much every trial like this in China is a show trial. That kind of sentence means nothing in a country where the wealthy elite can (and do) just pay someone to serve their terms.

 

[2timer]

I have to admit I'm a little surprised.

I figured they would do this show trial which would amount to nothing and 3 years from now he'd be walking the streets again. And who knows, he still might, but this should send some chills throughout the communist party structure.

You don't understand the slightest about Chinese culture. Why would the CCP turn this high profile case into an "open" case only to find Xilai innocent at the end? That would be a disaster for them on the microblogs and media feeds that influence so much of China. This was a PR event for the Party through and through and the outcome was already determined from the outset. There is no jury or assumption of innocence in China, there is only the drive to hold power and save face. They had no choice but to find him guilty.

 

[mistercrabby]

Just a case of rabid dogs turning on one of their own. The commies still suck.