Beijing
(AsiaNews) - The former police chief of Chongqing, the catalyst in revealing the
biggest scandal of the last 30 years in the Chinese leadership has been
publicly charged with four crimes. According
to Xinhua, the Chengdu prosecutor has
formalized the charges against Wang Lijun (pictured) - with bending the law for
selfish ends, defection, abuse of power
and bribe-taking - and asked the Intermediate Court of the city Sichuan to set
a trial date soon.
The
charges against Wang, once a close associate of Bo Xilai, the party chief in
Chongqing, seem specifically tailored to avoid implicating Bo and save face in the
party, which is preparing for its 18th Congress, which will see the transition
of power from Fourth to
the Fifth Generation.
Last
February, Wang fled and hid in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, where he applied
for asylum. Wang
feared for his life after discovering that the wife of Bo Xilai, Gu Kailai, he
had killed businessman Neil Heywood with her own hands.
The
accusation of "defection and escape" - rather unusual in China - it
is understandable given that his flight alerted the world to the intrigues worthy
of "Dynasty" within the leadership. Communicating
the assassination to a foreign consulate, the Party has had to intervene. But it had to save face. Gu
Kailai was arrested and sentenced to death, suspended for two years (see
20/08/2012 Death
penalty for Gu Kailai. Still silence on Bo Xilai) several police chiefs were
condemned (see 10/08/2012 Chongqing
saga: police and Wang Lijun on trial. Silence on Bo Xilai) and now the trial of Wang Lijun.
Interestingly
enough, in none of these trials was the name mentioned of the Chongqing boss, Bo
Xilai, husband of the assassin, who benefited from the wealth acquired by corrupt
Heywood, direct superior and close associate of Wang Lijun.
From
2009 on, Bo and Wang set in action a plan to rid Chongqing of local mafias,
often using unorthodox methods such as torture and false accusations, to the
point of arresting senior members of the Party and the judiciary (from here on
charges of abuse of power). The
campaign - called - "Hit Black from hei" - Bo was noticed by and moved
up in the party hierarchy. Until
February, the day of Wang's defection, he was on the point of being nominated a
member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the peak of Chinese power. Soon
afterwards, the party intervened and removed him from Chongqing, accusing him of
generic "violations of party discipline."
Of
ethnic Mongolian origin and a martial arts expert, Wang has always enjoyed a
reputation as incorruptible. He has inspired some
detective soap operas. Also
an expert in anatomy and autopsy, after the assassination of Heywood, he had
taken blood and a piece of heart from the body of the to use as evidence in the
future. But
in the meantime he had hidden the charges against the wife of his immediate
boss.
Some
observers think that the fall of Bo Xilai was orchestrated to shake up the
party of "princelings" - of which Bo is part - in their climb towards
central power, to benefit the clan around to Hu Jintao.
But
the same Hu Jintao accused Wang of "treason" and since last February he
disappeared in police custody. The
public does not understand what kind of "betrayal" he is guilty of:
after all, it is thanks to Wang, that Gu Kailai was convicted. But
perhaps the "betrayal" is the fact that he "washed dirty
linen" at the U.S. consulate and so forced the party to come to terms with
the internal struggles for power, widespread corruption and recklessness in the
use of the law for their own purposes.