As one of the nation’s rare authorities on China’s elite politics, Brookings Institution Research Director Cheng Li has given over 200 interviews in the past month on Bo Xilai’s dramatic fall from power, first as Chongqing Party Secretary, then from his position in the Politburo. In a New York Times news analysis on April 6, Michael Wines asked Li about Bo’s ouster from the Politburo: “‘The concern was not that Bo would change the delicate balance of power, but that he would lead the party completely out of control,’ said Cheng Li, an expert on China’s elite at the Brookings Institution in Washington. ‘It’s more than a power struggle. It’s a corresponding interest to maintain the legitimacy of the Communist Party—to survive.’”
Charles Hutzler of the Associated Press, in
“China Ousts Top Politician, Accuses Wife of Murder” on April 10 also quoted Li: “This means the political career of Bo Xilai is over. . .The party wants to really resolve the Bo Xilai crisis in a relatively short period of time. They want to make sure that the attention for the 18th party congress will not suffer too much from the Bo Xilai episode.” The National Bureau of Asian Research published an in-depth interview on April 18 with Li entitled
“The Bo Xilai Crisis: A Curse or a Blessing for China?,” which was quoted by Evan Osnos in the
April 23 New Yorker: “Cheng Li, of the Brookings Institution, believes that the Bo Xilai case will be ‘a curse if the Party pretends that its rule can remain as before, but a blessing if the Party decides to transform itself.’”
As reported in the December issue of this newsletter, Li wrote about Bo’s “aggressive self-promotion campaign” to win a coveted seat on the Politburo’s Standing Committee this fall in Washington Quarterly, “The Battle for China’s Top Nine Leadership Posts.”
Comments