The Bo Xilai playbook
Richard Harris says Bo Xilai's performance in court was that of a consummate politician who understood attack was his best defence, and gave his all to discredit testimony against him
The Bo Xilai trial saw the most effective public defence by a politician of his actions since US president Bill Clinton faced a grand jury over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, casually sipping a diet Coke. Bo, like Clinton a highly experienced and intelligent politician, used every trick in the book, being alternately charming, selfish and ruthless - all basic lessons from the Senior Politician's Manual 101.
Whether Bo is innocent or guilty is irrelevant; his spirited defence is a lesson in how to get out of a scrape, one that worked for elder statesman Clinton. The transcript details from the Jinan court may have been edited but they show enough of the raw politics to impress Machiavelli, if not a grand jury.
The first rule of politics is that attack is the best form of defence; discredit the opposition. The prime prosecution evidence against Bo appeared to be witness-based and by attacking their independence and credibility, Bo sought to embarrass a lazy prosecution.
He said the testimony of his wife, Gu Kailai, was "comical and ridiculous", described her as "mentally unstable", and questioned the "word of a convicted murderer". Xu Ming, a businessman close to him in Liaoning and who was alleged to have provided the family with gifts and foreign trips, was cross-examined by Bo himself. The court transcript described it as "confrontational" and Bo distanced himself, reasonably well, from most of the gifts, including a US$3.2 million French villa allegedly given to his family.
Bo dismissed the testimony of Wang Zhenggang, a high official in the Liaoning provincial government, as "contradictory and irrational". The now wheelchair-bound Wang Lijun, his former police chief who was very close to Gu and the man who ran to the US consulate for cover when the Neil Haywood "suicide" turned out to be murder, was described as an "abominable liar", "two-faced" and "a man without morals". But the best invective was reserved for his lifelong friend Tang Xiaolin, who was described in such un-court-like language as a "crazy dog" and an "ugly person who sold his soul".
A key politician's rule is to create distance between oneself and the guilty parties. Politicians are good at cosying up to success stories, such as sportsmen or astronauts and even better at distancing themselves from losers. So Bo testified that he had rarely met his wife since 2007. He admitted to an affair around 1999, after which Gu spent a lot of time abroad. He also claimed that Gu's business activities were not known to him, saying that Xu was "not his friend but hers".
Separating two allies through the "divide and rule" tactic is another defence strategy to confuse witness evidence. Bo admitted slapping police chief Wang (Wang's testimony was that he was punched hard) because he was supportive of Gu and thought Wang was setting her up. Taking on an element of righteous anger is a good way of collecting sympathy for oneself at the expense of others.