SINOGRAPH Silence in court gives wind of
reform By Francesco Sisci
BEIJING - Few things could mark the future
of China as much as the process that closed last
week in the interior city of Hefei, in Anhui
province, far from the international media, over a
1,000 miles from Beijing, against Gu Kailai, the
wife of Bo Xilai, the man who wanted to put China
on the path of neo-Maoism.
After Mao's
death in 1981, the trial of his loyalists, the
notorious Gang of Four, marked the country's
political decision to embrace a policy of economic
reforms. Similarly, Gu Kailai's conviction might -
after so many controversies and debates - seal the
party's decision to launch long-awaited political
reforms.
This does not detract from the
allegations against Gu, which are likely to be
substantially true since they certainly had to
pass the scrutiny of the many political allies of
Bo Xilai, who was cornered by the amount of
evidence. The fact is that Gu was accused and
convicted of a nefarious
crime - killing British citizen Neil Heywood.
The motive for the killing is still
uncertain despite the first explanations of the
proceedings in Hefei. The current talk in Beijing
suggests it was a question of money. Heywood was
sending Gu's money abroad, demanded a higher
percentage from her, and Heywood was killed in
response. There are signs of imbalance as well as
arrogance: why kill someone when you could just
pay it? It is known that when you launder money,
the service is not free. Then she must either be
mad or arrogant, and maybe both.
Yet,
according to a second version, the story may be
more complicated. Heywood is suspected of
espionage, and this could explain the hurried
silence with which the British Foreign Office
accepted that the body of Heywood, a 41-year-old
man in good health, was cremated just 48 hours
after death.
In a system such as China's,
crowded with shadows and suspects, even a vague
scent of espionage may have been sufficient to set
in motion the complex political machine that would
depose Bo and initiate political reforms. If
Heywood is a suspected spy, then Bo becomes a
suspected traitor, an unforgivable sin for any
Chinese - especially for someone like Bo who
promoted a nationalist and populist ideology.
In other words, Bo becomes the man who
poses as nationalist and anti-Western by day, and
then turns out to be in cahoots with Western
spies, and thus guilty of high treason, by night.
True or false, that version is more than
enough to push the government on the road to
political reform and openness with the West
because it shows that the real traitors are or may
be the nationalists. This, in other words, is
discrediting the whole wing of the Party that
supports a nationalist agenda and it is moving the
balance of the Chinese political debate in a
different direction, implying that true national
interests lie in embracing the world not opposing
it.
However, these facts remain too
delicate to expose to the public in a courtroom or
in print. This version can be obtained only from
suspicions, faint deductions, and certainly there
is no hardly any hard fact about it, and Beijing
surely has no written admission from London that
Heywood was indeed a spy. Even then, Bo's allies
may not believe this admission from London, and
Bo's friends may argue it's another plot against
their guy. Moreover, the revelation that he
collaborated with foreign agencies could publicly
throw a shadow on the party apparatus.
Likely then, there is a strong effort
within the court process and politically to keep
the truth silent. At the same time, likely for
this reason, despite the murder, Gu will be spared
the death penalty on the basis that she worked to
"make known the crimes of others." If she will be
given the death penalty, this could be
automatically extended to her husband, Bo, since
he was at least as guilty of trying to conceal the
murder.
The communist power base of China,
unlike in other communist countries, was already
very reluctant to use bloody purges at its top
echelons during the days of Mao and of the
Cultural Revolution. Deng, as he took power, went
even further, he never executed his enemies and
just kept them under house arrest for life. Even
in 1981, with the trial of the infamous Maoist
Gang of Four (who would have liked to execute Deng
had they had a chance), death sentences were
commuted to prison terms. Then today, 30 years
later, there is even greater reason to expect
leniency. That said, Bo and Gu are likely to end
their days in jail, behind bars or at home under
surveillance and not allowed to meet anyone.
This does not bring the story to the end.
The fact that the court judgment also states that
there are "other crimes" indicates that Bo Xilai's
tribulations are still far from over.
Francesco Sisci is a columnist
for the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore and can be
reached at fsisci@gmail.com
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