For China’s party leaders, Bo Xilai poses the next dilemma

[Valin]

Washington Post:

William Wan

8/20/12

 

BEIJING — With the sentencing of Gu Kailai on Monday for the murder of a British businessman, China’s Communist Party leaders are trying to close the book on the deepest political crisis they have faced in two decades.

 

But now their attention turns to an even more vexing chapter of that process: What to do with Gu’s husband, the once powerful,now deposed regional Communist Party leader, Bo Xilai.

 

Bo’s spectacular downfall and the murder mystery entangling his wife earlier this year threw China’s rulers into turmoil at a particularly sensitive time, ahead of once-in-a-decade leadership transition in China.

 

 

(Snip)

 

The divisions within the party go beyond personality and loyalty and involve deep differences in ideology. Bo represented a brash left-wing, Maoist ideology that was in some ways the antithesis of market-driven factions within the party. But the overriding goal of the party has remained self-preservation.

 

For that reason, many experts believe that the party’s top officials are trying to fully resolve the scandal, including the fate of Bo and his former lieutenant Wang Lijun, before the leadership transition begins this fall.

 

But in doing so, the party faces a conundrum.

 

(Snip)