In China, justice serves the cause of party politics
Steve Tsang says the rules of the game held firm in Bo Xilai's life sentence and treatment of his son
The sentencing of Bo Xilai to life imprisonment should come as no surprise. It confirms the Communist Party under Xi Jinping remains a consultative Leninist system characterised by governance through collective leadership, an obsessive focus on maintaining party unity and the careful management of public opinion.
Regardless of the crimes Bo may have committed, the dramatic defiance he displayed throughout the court proceedings rendered only one outcome possible: Bo would spend the rest of his life in detention, yet escape execution.
Politics, not justice, necessitated this decision. If Bo had been less combative in his defence, contrite even, a lighter sentence, possibly as low as 15 years, may have been handed down. But Bo sealed his own fate. Through a commitment to clear his name and a deliberate show of calculated resistance, he made his intention to stage a political comeback clear. Xi and his successors could not tolerate any leniency; there is no incentive for any of them to take a gamble on a figure like Bo.
A death sentence for a former Politburo member was out of the question. That would have implied a change in the fundamental, unspoken rules of the game for the top leadership post-Mao Zedong.
Given the volatility of politics under a consultative Leninist system, no top-level leader would dare implement such a change. After all, no one can be sure they will never be on the receiving end. Until Jiang Zemin, under whose leadership the party system was transformed, no party general secretary had ever ended his time in office in comfortable retirement and freedom.
The other silent code of conduct that governs party power struggles also appears to have been upheld; that the offspring of disgraced officials should be left alone. Thus, while Bo's personal wealth is to be confiscated, there is no indication that the family's overseas wealth that funds the expensive education and lifestyle of Bo's son in the US will be seized. Bo Guagua is safe, as no top leader in China wishes to set a precedent for going after the children of a toppled former comrade.
In the run-up to the sentencing, the court made it known that, in Bo's case, justice would not only be done but would be seen to be done. It is a reflection of how the party and the legislative system in China define their concept of justice.