Bo Xilai And The Return Of Politics

By Fareed Zakaria Monday, May 14, 2012

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Illustration by Oliver Munday for TIME

The storm over the blind activist Chen Guangcheng has understandably captured the world's attention in the past week. But an event of much greater significance remains the ouster of Bo Xilai, the powerful party boss of Chongqing. The rise and fall of Bo is part of a much larger and potentially disruptive trend in China — the return of politics to the Chinese Communist Party.

We don't much think of the party as a political organization these days. It is dominated by technocrats obsessed with economic and engineering challenges. These men — and they are almost all men — are comfortable talking about detailed economic and technical data, but they are not skilled politicians, adept at handling large crowds or palace intrigue. This apolitical system is a recent phenomenon and the outcome of a conscious decision by the founder of modern China, Deng Xiaoping.

When the Chinese communists took power in 1949, the party was dominated by charismatic revolutionaries and military leaders. Court politics, intrigue, ideological posturing and mass politics were pervasive in the new regime, and its leader, Mao Zedong, was a master politician. In 1957 he launched the "antirightist campaign," which was followed by the Great Leap Forward, which was followed by the Cultural Revolution, all designed to divide and destroy his opponents and consolidate his power.

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Mao also kept his lieutenants in constant turmoil. Just before the Cultural Revolution, Beijing published a list of the 26 top officials in China. Two years later, only 13 remained in office, the others having been purged. Defense Minister Lin Biao, once designated as Mao's successor, tried to flee the country and was killed. Hyperpolitics persisted after Mao's death. The new head of the party ordered the arrest of the radical Gang of Four, who were said to have been perpetrators of the Cultural Revolution. They were tried, convicted and imprisoned.

It was against this backdrop that Deng took power in the late 1970s and 1980s. Deng was determined to end the high drama of Chinese political life and focus on economic development. He wanted to turn the party into a professional organization run by technocrats, mostly engineers. He required them to have been top students who subsequently showed skill in practical problem solving. He even changed the tone of party meetings, which had been devoted to long-winded ideological speeches, saying in 1980, "If you don't have anything to say, save your breath ... The only reason to hold meetings and to speak at them is to solve problems."

(MORE: Bo Xilai)

The party was soon transformed. By 1985, the Central Committee was dominated by younger college graduates and the Politburo's Standing Committee, the country's ruling elite, were all engineers. That tradition of technocracy has persisted. A party whose history is tied to peasants, workers and soldiers is now the most elitist operation in the world. Its system of promotion favors engineers, economists and management experts over anyone with grassroots political skills. For two decades, China has been run like a company, not a country.

Eventually, politics had to re-emerge. China has reached a level of growth and development at which the big questions it faces are not technical engineering puzzles but deep political, philosophical ones.

Bo represented the revival of politics in at least two ways. In a system of colorless men, he was charismatic, conniving and political. He was comfortable in front of crowds, eager to push himself forward, and he rubbed against the grain of consensus decisionmaking. Money was, as in U.S. politics, the grease that smoothed Bo's rise. But he also represented the "new left," an ideological movement that emphasized social and cultural solidarity, the power of the state and other populist issues. Whether he truly believed in these stances is irrelevant. Like all good political entrepreneurs, he saw a market for these ideas in modern China and filled it. And there are other would-be leaders — military nationalists, economic liberals, even more-full-throated populists — who are debating China's future furiously, though privately, in Beijing and Shanghai.

Bo's ouster is the most significant purge in the party's top ranks since Tiananmen Square. The party may hope that the People's Republic, as it did after that earlier upheaval, can return to its efficient and steady technocratic path. But China has changed too much. And politics in China is xenophobic, populist, nationalist, messy and certainly unpredictable — like politics everywhere.

FOR MORE BY FAREED ZAKARIA, GO TO time.com/zakaria

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idoubt 2 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
Bo is considered to be the second Mao. Someone whom the Chinese Neo-liberal elites are most afraid of, someone who can unite and mobilize the 99% of the Chinese. He may be fired by the elite technocrats, but he is the leader the Chinese are stirring to rally around. If I were a wall street hedge fund manager, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
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Milkless 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Bo is somehow a good man,if,without his career
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Amy44 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Though I agree with the overall sentiment of the article, I have to say that I disagree with your thesis, 'China was without politics for the last 20 or so years'. Though Deng put China on a very economically progressive path, China was never without politics. The way they conduct business and other basic functions in society is rife with inter-personal politics. Why else would back-door transactions and corruption become so prominent throughout the country? China has just not overtly done anything with a pure political reason for a long time. But politics will always persist in that country, just like it will in any other country.
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LingNYC 4 comments collapsed Collapse Expand
As a native of Chongqing, I have my strongest and warmest support for Bo. Yes he was like a western politician attuned to populist moods and themes, but isn't that fresh air for a machine-like communist party?
He got things done, he got rid of organized crime in the city, he turned a rusty dying industrial metropolis around , he got all the corrupt officials and police to behave, and he made the city safe, finally. The list goes on.
Bo was ousted because Wen envied his popularity, and because Bo made him look incompetent. Bo was also ousted because he presented too much a threat to the corrupt bureaucracy as a whole. The thought of him getting to the political helm and cracking down on them!
The Cultural Rev tactics with which Bo was ousted is the most scary part of contemporary Chinese politics. We in Chongqing had no right to say anything, but to be fed a party document making accusations unbelievable to the locals.
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julia93 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Your reason is so ridiculous.Premier Wen will retire this year.Is he so narrow-minded to do that? Don't claim yourself as a native from Chongqing to gain credit! Bo is corrupted. How can he afford his son a luxury car without corruption. And are all chinese blind so Primer Wen made it by himself? If you are a normal Chinese,you will never say Premier Wen would do that. Because he is the idol id China.
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HorusKai 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Also as a native of Chongqing, I completely disagree with your comment. His revival of cultural revolutionary rhetoric in Chongqing was an insult to all Chinese who have suffered through or were persecuted to death during that period of political violence and lawlessness. His hypocrisy--exhorting the sons and daughters of Chongqing residents to go to the countryside to "learn" from the peasants, while sending his own son to study and live a life of luxury (all paid for with funds of mysterious sources) in the West--was just appalling. His blatant contempt for rule of law, exemplified by the the persecution of Li Zhuang, the defense attorney of a fallen government official executed for corruption, should be enough cause to alarm any thinking person. The fact that Chongqing became safer and the lower-level government bureaucracy became less corrupt (which itself is a questionable claim) under his rule is besides the point. After all, by that standard, Chongqing still had a long way to go compared to the ultra-safe and corruption-free Pyongyang. What Chongqing, and all of China, needs is genuine rule of law, respect for basic civil liberties, and a society in which people's property rights and basic dignity are protected by the government. We, as people of Chongqing and China, do not need a "benevolent" (which Bo was not) dictator.
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Napboy 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Actually, that's just a palace coup. You could not see through it because you did not know how heartless and cruel Bo is and how many cruel things he had done. so.... as usual..... natively , i would say that's none of my business....
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Toothy Grins, Dave Is the author of the Book: "How To Stop Gum Disease In 4 Easy Steps" As well as the print book: "What You Should Know About Gum Disease" - Visit Dave at ToothyGrinsStore.com 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Hi Fareed, nice article. The only thing I would add is that China is a very complicated country and society. They have many ingrained problems that are very hard to solve but works as an invisible force to hinder progress.
The CCP has done a lot of really bad things over the last 7 decades . and much of it is hidden. The Nine Commentaries documents well what has happened over the years.
It is important for anyone who wants to do business there to understand what this ruling group is about and how they operate.
just my 2cents.
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Michael Eng 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
It is not the return of politics, it is the return of class struggle. Bo, like his counter part in the "occupy" movement, is a hypocrite who cashes in on people's distress.
Unlike the the comical "occupy" movement, however, Bo has real following among the backward elements. By appealing to envy and lawlessness that are ingrained in the Chinese feudal culture, he could undo the remarkable progress of the past 30 years.
I am glad he is fired.
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667251lin 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand
Bo was free to do anything he wanted, including kidnap, murder, and grab tons of money. After all, everybody in CCP hierchy does it. Until he planned, with the support of Jiang and Zhou, a political coup. You must read Wang Lijun's confession to realize. CCP is a terrorism group to their own people.

Bo Xilai And The Return Of Politics

Bo Xilai And The Return Of Politics

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