His police chief, Wang Lijun had committed the cardinal self-immolating sin of relating to Mr. Bo how his wife was implicated in the poisoning death of British businessman, Neil Heywood. Intrigue and sinister playback for greed that surpassed expectations.
In assuming that Mr. Heywood would be satisfied with the payment allocated to him for his trouble in taking charge of spiriting the Bo family ill-gotten gains out of the country for safe-keeping from snooping eyes; outrage when he insisted he would not hesitate to betray them if he were not given a more generous slice of that pie.
One might almost claim the man to have engineered his very own end.
Which happens when people become too self-assured, too satisfied with themselves, in the process failing to consider the bigger picture than what they imagine it to be.
As for Mr. Wang, a brute of a police chief for whom no love was lost among his underlings, fear was quick to set in when his news had the entirely expected effect of infuriating his good friend and mentor, Mr. Bo. Fleeing to the U.S. consulate for haven, he will now be charged with treason by the Communist party's Central Committee.
Who would far have preferred that he had come to them to express his fear and anguish, not reveal to an alien country details that would prove to be complex, irritating and embarrassing.
Mr. Wang knew well what to fear; in his brief absence, his colleagues, implicated in the affair, were picked up by Mr. Bo's security team. They suffered the extremes of too-close attention to pick their minds clean of precisely what they knew, how they knew it, and to whom it was disclosed. Five survived the torture they had undergone, two did not.
Mr. Wang had no wish to be among them at this juncture in their professional careers.
All officials and party members were made familiar with the unsavoury details of what had transpired following the death of Mr. Heywood, inclusive of the elements concerning the events that had occurred leading to his death. The purpose being not only to alert and inform, but to do so in a manner that would definitively paint Mr. Bo and his wife, Gu Kailai as unsalvageable damaged goods of no further use to the Communist party, let alone to the country itself.
Losing face is not a popular condition in China; the more elite the company, the less acceptable the fall from grace. And doing so through such a gruesomely violent setpiece with its accompanying failures has created an impression in the international community that there is very little to admire in the political, bureaucratic culture of the country.
The official investigation continues, pulling down more members of the circle that Mr. Bo and Mr. Wang favoured, and spreading ripples beyond their close affiliation to throw suspicion upon others, more elevated who had supported and acclaimed their value to the Central Committee of the Communist party whose ranks may have reason to become very nervous indeed.
Labels: China, Corruption, Crime, Economy, Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, April 21, 2012
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