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Bo Xilaii

Chinese Communist "princeling" Bo Xilai, expected by many to take a key leadership position in the leadership transition of 2012, was expelled from the Communist Party in September after a career that saw him as Mayor of Dalian City, Minister of Commerce and Party Chief of the Chongqing municipality. His wife Gu Kailai received a suspended death sentence in August 2012 for murdering British business partner Neil Heywood. 

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The much-anticipated press conference at the close of the National People’s Congress was cancelled, discontinuing a customary practice that was established in the early 1990s.

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The innocuous-sounding euphemism "white gloves" generally refers to a middleman or outfit that launders dirty or corrupt money under a seemingly legitimate front - dirty hands concealed by a pair of white gloves.

The trial of Bo Xilai, though arguably China's most closely watched court case in decades, was widely expected to be a highly scripted and predictable affair with a selected group of officials, family members, and state media journalists in attendance but otherwise closed to the public.

Communist parties seem to have a weakness for show trials. The most famous of these were the Moscow trials, which provided the backdrop to Arthur Koestler's powerful novel Darkness at Noon.

In China's uphill battle against rampant corruption, no other Communist Party agency evokes more fear among officials than the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country's top anti-graft watchdog.

  • China’s Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) was established in March 2003 and is responsible for trade negotiations and the relationship with the World Trade Organization (WTO)
  • As a cabinet-level executive agency under the State Council, Mofcom has 29 departments overseen by minister Wang Wentao
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China's environmental protection ministry has officially overruled a controversial dam project in a critical national fish reserve on the Yangtze River, widely seen as a pet project of disgraced former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai.

The Supreme People's Court has for the first time accused disgraced top cadres Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai and others of engaging in political activities "not approved" by the Communist Party.

A Communist Party chief in eastern China under investigation for alleged corruption has close links to the jailed former government leader Bo Xilai, according to a magazine report.

For sale: French villa with views of the Mediterranean, five bedrooms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and featured in the high-profile trial of jailed former Politburo member Bo Xilai.

At least four Chongqing police officers will stand trial later this month on accusations of torturing interrogation suspects during the anti-triad crackdown of Bo Xilai’s former right-hand man.

Outspoken personalities from all walks of life dominated the pages of the South China Morning Post during 2013. There was the former American spy agency contractor turned whistle-blower who broke cover in Hong Kong, sparking a global fallout over US government spying; and the Chinese princeling whose public trial for corruption and abuse of power riveted the nation.