Bo Xilai case: Critics and fans united in scepticism

The life sentence for Bo Xilai marks the end of a compelling drama - but both his admirers and his critics felt the case failed to tell the whole story.

Huang Chengcheng, a Chongqing native who criticised Bo's brutal campaign against crime gangs, said Bo deserved his sentence.

But Huang saw it as a political decision, rather than the result of a fair trial, and said prosecutors limited the charges they brought to manage the political risk.

"There was no mention of so many people who have been wrongly persecuted and even executed in Bo's crackdown," he said. "His trial also distracted the public with lurid details of the extramarital affair involving Bo's wife and [ex-police chief] Wang Lijun."

But Zhao Fusheng, one of many Maoists who backed Bo as the politician revived revolutionary culture in Chongqing, was shocked by the sentence. He expected a five-year jail term and said Bo's real crime was over-ambition.

"At worst, he failed in the oversight of his subordinates and his family," said Zhao. "If Bo's a criminal now, more than 90 per cent of party officials are no better than him."