Bo Xilai’s court performance has amused many
Ever since Mr Bo Xilai found himself at the centre of his country's biggest political scandal, China's ‘Fallen Prince' has grabbed headlines across the world. To that extent, it was only to be expected that all eyes would be on his five-day trial, which concluded on Monday, even though few will deny that its result might have been decided in advance. By stripping Mr Bo of all his positions within the Government and expelling him from the party soon after the scandal came to light in February 2012, the Communist Party of China had made known its position on the Chongqing branch's tainted Secretary. There is no reason to believe that the judiciary will now not toe the ruling party's line. But those who had assumed that just because the final ruling is a given, there would be little to look forward to in the trial, were mistaken. The tainted politician put up a spirited defence that seemingly took the prosecutors by surprise — he recanted his earlier confessions and denied involvement in any wrongdoing. Essentially, he sought to demolish the prosecution's case by claiming that of the two of its key witnesses, one — his wife Gu Kailai — was “crazy”, while the other — his former aide Wang lijun — was a liar. And while this line of defence is unlikely to produce a verdict in favour of Mr Bo, it provided for some wholesome court-room entertainment, with doses of sex, lies, money and meat. And so it was that as Mr Bo tried to shake off responsibility for the actions of his wife, who has been convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, he also shed light on his dysfunctional marriage. For one, he confessed to having cheated on Gu, often described as China's Jackie Kennedy. But Mr Bo portrayed her as a “relatively fragile woman” and then turned the tables on her to argue that, it was because of the affair that his estranged wife was trying to implicate him. Yet, he claimed, he still had feelings for her. But that was not all.
As the trial progressed, Mr Bo added yet another twist to the amusing tale when he testified that the other key witness, Wang, who was once his right-hand man, had fallen in love with his wife: “His emotions were in a knot” and he, therefore, “couldn't control himself”, said Mr Bo. No wonder, he so mercilessly hounded Wang in court! Not only did the disgraced party leader call the former vice-mayor of Chongqing a “person of very vile quality” who was “filled with deception”, he also mocked at the prosecution for producing a witness who was “beneath legal credibility”. The details of the trial have been made public courtesy the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan which has been posting parts of the transcript on Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging website, in an attempt to bring more transparency to proceedings. Certainly, nobody is complaining. How else would we have known that Mr Bo tried to steam an exotic South African meat that is not supposed to be cookedIJ