5 September 2012
China said today that the former police chief at the centre of the country’s biggest political scandal in years had been charged with defection, power abuse and bribe taking.
Wang Lijun, who had also been a vice mayor in the south-western city of Chongqing, sparked the scandal by fleeing to the US consulate in nearby Chengdu. That led to the dismissal of the city’s powerful communist party boss Bo Xilai and the recent conviction of Bo’s wife for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
The announcement of the charges indicates that a trial is imminent, moving the scandal to a resolution before a transition to a new generation of national leaders.
