Bo Xilai

Bo Xilai (born 3 July 1949) is a Chinese former politician who was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges.

He came to prominence through his tenures as Mayor of Dalian and then the governor of Liaoning.

Bo Xilai was born on 3 July 1949.

He was the fourth child and second son of prominent Communist Party leader Bo Yibo, one of the Eight Great Eminent Officials, who served as Minister of Finance in the early years of the People's Republic of China but who fell from favor in 1965 for supporting more open trade relations with the West.

When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Bo Yibo was labeled a "rightist" and a "counterrevolutionary" and purged from his posts.

He spent the ensuing twelve years in prison, where he was reportedly tortured.

His wife, Hu Ming, was abducted by Red Guards in Guangzhou, and was either beaten to death or committed suicide.

Bo Xilai was seventeen years old when the Cultural Revolution began, and at the time attended the prestigious No. 4 High School in Beijing, one of the best in the country.

In the early years of the Cultural Revolution, Bo Xilai is reported to have been an active member of the liandong Red Guard organization and may have at one point denounced his father.

As the political winds of the Cultural Revolution shifted, Bo Xilai and his siblings were either imprisoned or sent to the countryside, and Bo Xilai was locked up for five years.

After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, the chaos of the Cultural Revolution was officially attributed to the Gang of Four, and Bo's father was released.

He was admitted to the Peking University by public examination in 1977.

Unlike many of his contemporaries in the Chinese leadership who studied engineering, Bo majored in world history.

Bo Yibo was politically rehabilitated, and, in 1979, became vice premier.

After his release, Bo Xilai worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau.

He joined the Communist Party in October 1980.

During the 1980s, the Bo family regained its political influence.

Bo Yibo served successively as vice premier and vice-chairman of the Central Advisory Commission.

The elder Bo came to be known as one of the "eight elders" (sometimes referred to as the "Eight Immortals") of the Communist Party and was instrumental in the implementation of market reforms in the 1980s.

In the second year of his studies, Bo enlisted in a Master's program in international journalism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, graduating with a master's degree in 1982.

He soon requested a transfer to the provinces, and in 1984 was appointed deputy party secretary of Jin County (modern day Jinzhou District, Dalian, Liaoning).

Although he favored more liberal economic policies, the elder Bo was politically conservative, and endorsed the use of military force against demonstrators during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

After the 1989 crackdown, Bo Yibo helped ensure the ascent of Jiang Zemin to succeed Deng Xiaoping as the leader of the Party and helped Jiang consolidate power in the 1990s.

From 2004 to November 2007, he served as Minister of Commerce.

Between 2007 and 2012, he served as a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing, a major interior municipality.

He was generally considered the main political rival of Xi Jinping before Xi became the paramount leader of China.

He is the son of former Chinese Vice Premier Bo Yibo.

He cultivated a casual and charismatic image in a marked departure from Chinese political convention.

In Chongqing, Bo initiated a campaign against organized crime, increased spending on welfare programs, maintained consistent double-digit percentage GDP growth, and campaigned to revive Cultural Revolution-era "red culture".

Bo's promotion of egalitarian values and the achievements of his "Chongqing model" made him the champion of the Chinese New Left, composed of both Maoists and social democrats disillusioned with the country's market-based economic reforms and increasing economic inequality.

However, the perceived lawlessness of Bo's anti-corruption campaigns, coupled with concerns about the image he cultivated, made him a controversial figure.

Bo Yibo remained a prominent figure in the party until his death in 2007 and was influential in shaping his son's career.

After graduating from university, Bo Xilai was assigned to Zhongnanhai – the headquarters of the Communist Party – where he worked with the research office of the CCP Central Committee Secretariat and CCP Central Committee General Office.

Bo was considered a likely candidate for promotion to the elite CCP Politburo Standing Committee at the 18th Party Congress in 2012.

However, his political fortunes came to an abrupt end following the Wang Lijun incident, in which his top lieutenant and police chief sought asylum at the American consulate in Chengdu.

Wang claimed to have information about the involvement of Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, who allegedly had close financial ties to the two.

In the fallout, Bo was removed as the CCP Committee secretary of Chongqing and lost his seat on the Politburo.

He was later stripped of all his positions and lost his seat at the National People's Congress and eventually expelled from the party.

In 2013, Bo was found guilty of corruption, stripped of all his assets and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He is incarcerated at Qincheng Prison.