MCLC: supporters of Bo set up party

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: supporters of Bo set up party
***********************************************************

Source: Reuters (11/9/13):
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/09/us-china-politics-bo-idUSBRE9A804
L20131109

Exclusive: Supporters of China's disgraced Bo Xilai set up political party
BY BENJAMIN KANG LIM AND BEN BLANCHARD

(Reuters) - Supporters of China's disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai,
who has been jailed for corruption, have set up a political party, two
separate sources said, in a direct challenge to the ruling Communist
Party's de facto ban on new political groups.

The Zhi Xian Party, literally "the constitution is the supreme authority"
party, was formed on November 6, three days before the opening on Saturday
of a key conclave of top Communist Party leaders to discuss much-needed
economic reforms, the sources said.

It named Bo as "chairman for life", Wang Zheng, one of the party's
founders and an associate professor of international trade at the Beijing
Institute of Economics and Management, told Reuters by telephone.

"This is not illegal under Chinese law. It is legal and reasonable," Wang
said.

A second source, who asked not to be identified but who has direct
knowledge of the party's founding, confirmed the news.

Calls to the Communist Party's propaganda department seeking comment went
unanswered.

The Communist Party has not allowed any opposition parties to be
established since it came to power following the 1949 revolution, so
history suggests it will not look kindly on this new party, even more so
because its titular head is a former member of its top ranks.

Activists have been jailed in the past for setting up political parties,
although parties have never before coalesced around fallen top political
figures.

Asked if she was worried she would be arrested, Wang said: "We are not
afraid. I don't think we will be arrested."
The new party announced its establishment by sending letters to the
Communist Party, China's eight other political parties, parliament and the
top advisory body to parliament, Wang said, adding that no ceremony was
held.

It also sent a letter to Bo on Friday via the warden of his prison
informing him that he would be their "chairman for life", she said. It was
not immediately clear if Bo would agree.

The party was set up because it "fully agrees with Mr Bo Xilai's common
prosperity" policy, according to a party document seen by Reuters, a
reference to Bo's leftist egalitarian policies that won him so many
supporters.

Asked if party members included Communists, government officials or
People's Liberation Army officers, Wang said she could not discuss the
matter to protect them because it was politically "sensitive".

HISTORY LESSON

China's constitution guarantees freedom of association, along with freedom
of speech and assembly, but all are banned in practice. The constitution
does not explicitly allow or ban the establishment of political parties.
Wang said school authorities asked her not to go ahead with her plans to
form the party, but added that she was not doing anything illegal. She
said she had not been approached by the government. The school could not
be reached for comment on a weekend.

Bo, once a rising star in China's leadership circles who had cultivated a
following through his populist, quasi-Maoist policies, was jailed for life
in September on charges of corruption and abuse of power after a dramatic
fall from grace that shook the Communist Party ahead of a once-in-a-decade
generational leadership change.

Many of his supporters viewed his fall and the trial as a political plot
against him, rather than the consequence of any wrongdoing, and the
Communist Party remains worried about his influence.

A Communist Party document circulated this month urged officials to toe
the line and learn from Bo's mistakes, sources said. They were told to
fully conform with the party's decision to expel and prosecute Bo.

Senior party leaders had pushed for Bo to get a long sentence, fearing he
could stage a political comeback one day if not dealt with harshly.

China's Communist rulers have held an iron grip on power since the 1949
revolution, though they allow the existence of eight government-sanctioned
non-Communist parties, which were founded pre-1949. Technically, their
role is to advise rather than serve as a functioning opposition,
ostensibly to give a veneer of democracy.
The Communist Party views the founding of opposition parties as subversion.

One of China's most prominent dissidents, Xu Wenli, was sentenced to 13
years in prison in 1998 for helping to organize an opposition party, the
China <http://www.reuters.com/places/china> Democracy Party.

Xu and other activists set up the party that year, but the government took
a dim view and by 2000 Beijing had effectively crushed the nascent
movement and locked up its founders and members.

Xu was forced into exile in the United States in December 2002.

Bo is imprisoned at the Qincheng penitentiary, just north of Beijing,
where fallen members of the elite are incarcerated. He was expelled from
the Communist Party last year ahead of his trial.

(Editing by Neil Fullick)