Having made his name as a tough crime buster, Chongqing's top party official, Bo Xilai , is back in the limelight again, this time showing himself to be a sophisticated politician by garnering the support of mainland internet chiefs for the promotion of revolutionary ideology.
Bosses from 42 internet media companies, including the mainland's most popular websites such as Sina, Sohu, Netease and Baidu as well as MSN China, Yahoo China and Tom.com, gathered in Chongqing this week at the invitation of the party chief and pledged to extol 'revolutionary spirit' and pass on 'red culture' on their websites.
'We should make our national spirit ... a main driving force for building socialism and carry forward the Hongyan [red rock] spirit - the spirit and tradition of the revolutionary - and endeavour to make the internet an important base for promoting advanced culture,' said a joint statement by the internet bosses carried on the People's Daily website.
Bo is one of the strong candidates jockeying for power in the run-up to the next leadership succession when Premier Wen Jiabao , President Hu Jintao and most of the rest of the Politburo Standing Committee are expected to give up their party posts at the party's 2012 congress.
On Tuesday night, he hosted a gala at the Chongqing Grand Theatre for the internet media bosses, where they waved red flags and sang classic songs from the revolutionary era, according to state media reports.
Hongyan was a revolution base in Chongqing where prominent founders of the Communist Party such as Zhou Enlai and Dong Biwu held negotiations with then ruling Kuomintang during the anti-Japanese war. Underground Communist Party members faced a brutal crackdown from the Kuomintang at the time.