Bo Xilai Set Up as Scapegoat, Analysts Say

Websites believed to have ties with former Chinese Communist Party head Jiang Zemin are reporting that disgraced, former Politburo member Bo Xilai is guilty of crimes more serious than those named in his indictment. These reports, according to analysts, show that Jiang’s faction seeks to make Bo the scapegoat for atrocities committed in the persecution of Falun Gong.

On Sept. 28, the regime mouthpiece Xinhua news agency reported Bo would be tried for seeking profits for others, bribe taking, improper sexual relations, and “other discipline violations,” leaving observers to speculate what those other violations might be.

On Oct. 2, Mingjing News, a Chinese-language website based in New York that often comments on China’s leadership, quoted a source in Beijing as saying: “The Chinese regime is looking for criminal evidence of Bo Xilai’s involvement in death cases, human corpse trading, and an air crash in Dalian. The crimes committed by Bo indeed are more serious than what people know.”

The source also said that if necessary, the Chinese regime can have Bo’s wife Gu Kailai retried, and Bo and his supporters will have less of a chance to bounce back.

On Oct. 3, the Chinese-language website Boxun, which is based outside of China, reported that Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai are guilty of organ harvesting “to a certain extent.”

The source for Boxun’s report tried to defend Jiang Zemin. The source said that after Bo was removed from his Party posts, Jiang said Bo was guilty of crimes against humanity.

Analysts have noticed that Mingling and Boxun have in the past often carried articles favorable to the Jiang faction. That faction, under Jiang’s leadership, launched a campaign in 1999 to eradicate the traditional spiritual practice of Falun Gong.

Among the crimes committed against the practitioners of Falun Gong, the worst has been using them as a source for organs for transplantation. Investigators estimate that in the years 2000–2008 65,000 practitioners were killed due to organ harvesting. The practice continues with thousands more practitioners killed each year, according to investigators.

SOH commentator Lang Shu said the news reports are evidence that Jiang’s faction wants to cut ties with Bo Xilai. According to Lang, Jiang’s faction wants Bo to be the scapegoat for the atrocity of forced live organ harvesting. 

Bo Xilai is not capable of being the scapegoat for these crimes.

Bo Xilai is not capable of being the scapegoat for these crimes, though, said Lang.

Live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners involved large-scale physical exams, the disposal of the bodies, and the involvement of the courts, police, the Procuratorate, health departments, the army, and paramilitary police, Lang said. It’s a systemic, national crime that has involved a huge criminal gang and countless CCP officials.

China analyst Zhang Tianliang agrees. “Is Bo’s ranking high enough to be responsible for this crime? The answer is clearly ‘No,’” Zhang wrote in an email. “Organ harvesting is not only happening in Liaoning Province or Chongqing [Bo Xilai was governor of Liaoning and Party head of Chongqing]. It is a nationwide practice. This is why we need to pay close attention to security czar Zhou Yongkang and Jiang Zemin.”

Zhang said the report from Mingjing of Bo being charged with serious crimes indicates that Jiang’s faction is collapsing.

Lang recounted how Bo had gained political power by pleasing Jiang, and now their mutual interest no longer holds.

“Jiang’s faction is just an interest group with members using each other for their own benefits,” Lang said. “When there was a conflict of interest, their alliance broke apart immediately.”

The same day that Bo’s criminal indictment was announced, two major Twitter-like platforms in China, Sina and Tencent, lifted the ban on searches for terms related to live organ harvesting. Many netizens have commented that lifting that ban indicates a huge change is going to take place soon.

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Editor’s Note: When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.