On September 22, a political dynasty fell. Following a highly publicized corruption trial, former Chinese politburo member Bo Xilai had his assets stripped and was sentenced to death. His predicament gained global attention, providing a rare look into the tumultuous world of Chinese politics and the unsavory current running beneath the nation’s meteoric growth. Although Bo’s political dynasty was only recently wiped from Party rosters, his downfall really began in 2011, when a Bo family protégé and British citizen, Neil Heywood, was found dead in a Chongqing resort. This is where authors Pin Ho and WenGuang Huang begin A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel, a minutely research work which combines investigative journalism with Chinese culture and the country’s chaotic history to explain the condition of the Chinese state. Undertaking an arduous task, the authors are constantly pushed to question the quality of their information and the strength of their conclusions. Their premise – that Bo Xilai’s case mirrors the greater Chinese political situation – is convincing nonetheless.
Bo, ex-governor of the 30 million-strong megacity of Chongqing, first made headlines worldwide when Chongqing’s police chief Wang LiJun escaped to a nearby US consulate. Wang asserted that Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, was responsible for Heywood’s death, and made an official request for political asylum on the premises that Bo and his political cronies were trying to have him killed. The incident heralded a quick succession of events, where Bo was forcibly removed from power, his wife was arrested and put on trial for her role in Heywood’s death, and Bo himself finally faced criminal charges. He had, for years, taken extensive bribes to bankroll his son’s education in British boarding schools and Harvard. Bo’s work in Chonqing, and in the port city of Dalian where he was previously mayor, was mired with corruption and questionable decisions. Gu had, on her part, abused her husband’s influence to start business ventures all over China. Wang himself had committed incredible amounts of crime to get to his position: squeezing confessions out of his enemies in his own torture camps, liberally taking from police coffers to cover his expenses, and bending the court system to his favor[1]. Each of these outrageous stories, as opposed to being anomalies, reflects the norm of Chinese politics. A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel doesn’t cover all the large-scale corruption that occurs in the PRC, but successfully shows that acts of political insincerity rarely occur in isolation.
The book is split into vignettes, each approaching a different aspect of the Bo Xilai scandal. One of the first approaches Wang, who the media first labeled a victim of Bo’s family. Wang’s career in the Chinese security apparatus completely discredits this view. The police chief liberally flaunted regulations, having his opponents imprisoned or killed and denying most of his victims due process. Another vignette approaches Bo XiLai’s radical leftist policies, which were meant to reduce the wealth gap in Chongqing. The city’s massive deficit and lack of private enterprise speak for his policies’ success. Perhaps most troubling is Bo’s connection with Zhou Yonkang, at one time considered the third most important man in China, whose family business interests were largely dependent on Chongqing government patronage. The book’s cyclical narration works to show how endemic corruption is, in the modern Chinese state. It also brings to question the measures to curb corruption by former premier Wen Jiabao and current president Xi JingPing, whose families have reaped massive economic advantages from their positions.
Ho and Huang also bring into question the character of the Chinese Communist Party. The memorable description of China’s leaders as “an all-male group uniformly clad in dark suits, white shirts, and (often) red ties with dyed, jet-black hair,” and with otherwise little unity speaks volumes about the mirage of a stable PRC. The fight to reach the Standing Committee of the Politburo, China’s most powerful ruling body, is scattered with scenes often reserved for Hollywood movies. High-ranking politicians often battle with insomnia and paranoia, faced with the tangible fear of being outmaneuvered, murdered or arrested by their opponents. For such a bellicose group, their makeup is quite homogenous. Most high-ranking politicians are so called ‘princelings’ or descendants of a prestigious political lineage, handpicked and trained to reach their positions. Bo’s political family and dashing looks even garnered him and his wife a reputation as the “John and Jackie Kennedy of China.” This troubling tradition of political dynasties is increasingly sensitive, with a new generation of “Princelings” driving Ferraris, buying prestigious college diplomas and cozying into high-paying jobs that are exchanged for government contracts. Frighteningly, an effective overhaul of the Chinese government would entail the eradication of almost the entire current political order, where most members own and abuse their immaculate “political pedigrees”.
The uproarious tales about the new Chinese “political aristocracy” are by no means public knowledge, even within China. State news sources provide little clarity on what happens within China’s borders, and the few publications known for their investigative reporting are often shut down or harassed by government officials. Much of the information gathered by Ho and Huang originally either came in the form of a blog post on the social networking site Sina Weibo, in a tip from a government contact or from highly questionable official reports. Politicians have even been known to “manipulat[e] the international media” to work towards political goals, misleading journalists and giving them false information, often with the “tacit approval of the Communist party.”[2] The authors confront this reality head on, often questioning the facts put forward by anonymous sources. Their arguments can nevertheless extend beyond their evidence sometimes, as when they dispute that Gu Kailai actually killed Neil Heywood. Suggestions that Gu was framed are mainly corroborated by legal and forensics experts, but these people rarely have more than speculation to support their claims. Besides this and a few other slimly supported points, Ho and Huang are effective in sifting through misleading evidence, half-truths and downright lies to provide some clarity on the Bo scandal. The difficulties they faced in writing their book reflect the challenge presented to both journalists and the public in understanding the Chinese “bigger picture.”.
There is nothing endearing about the image A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel draws of China’s future. In a country where politicians manage every aspect of society, the constant political struggles dispel our notion that China’s leadership is an agglomeration of technocrats. A vast number of high-ranking Chinese politicians have been forced to bribe, steal and cheat (and sometimes even murder) their way to the top. As the book so vividly shows, if China cannot figure out how to prevent explosive, corrupt political powerhouses like Bo, it threatens both its stability and its future.
Image Credit: “Flag of China, Undated” (CC BY 2.0) by nathanh100
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[1] Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang, A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel (New York: Public Affairs, 2013), 37.
[2] Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang, A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel (New York: Public Affairs, 2013.)
Intriguing article!