Bo Xilai case underlines top priority of China's political elite - unity

One of the stark truths about elite Chinese politics uncovered by the remarkable fall of former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai is that, in contemporary China, despite all the recent excitement about the power of social networks and new communication tools, public opinion is neither well known nor important. Those who have dealt with China since the late 1960s find themselves in a comfort zone when they look at how Bo has been handled compared to previous great fellings.

The similarities are greater than the innovations. In the past, for Chen Liangyu in the 2000s, Chen Xitong in the 1990s, Zhao Ziyang in the 1980s, and even Lin Biao in the early 1970s, there was a period of silence before devastating cases were built about the incompetence, treachery and venality of the targeted figures. Finally, they were consigned to a zone of uncomfortable silence, where the mere mention of their name was regarded as bad manners.

It seems that Bo is already rapidly heading towards this fate. Perhaps the sole difference is that, under Mao Zedong , they were likely to die; after him, the final punishment was house detention.

Some might argue that 30 years of reform and opening up have meant that the party has had to adopt quasi-legal means of dealing with Bo and his wife. The court case in Hefei , Anhui , against Gu Kailai at least gave some idea that there had been an investigation, and we have seen an attempt to present semi-publicly the case against Gu, in particular, the charge of murder which she admitted. By implication, the case against her husband is being prepared.

The fact that Bo's name went unmentioned during Gu's court case probably shows that the main strategy now is delinking. Her misdemeanours are going to be presented as separate from his. The most one can conclude from this is that, after the initial shock, the party elite - even at this sensitive time - feel comfortable enough with how this issue is being handled that they are going to desist from all-out character assassination against their ex-colleague. They can just let this once-populist figure sink into obscurity.

Does public opinion play any role in this at all? Is the party going through this semi-legal process in order to take heed of the need to convince the public in China that, at heart, this is not about politics but real misdemeanours? Are they really trying to act in accordance with the words of Wen Jiabao when he spoke at the National People's Congress this year, of the imperative of holding everyone, no matter who they were, to the law, rather than political standards?

If that is the aim, then one has to conclude that what was offered in the claims made against Gu during her one-day hearing were a poor effort.