By Jaime Ortega.
It was announced as an unusual step but has been thus far unsatisfactory. The Internet retransmission through the trial of former Chinese leader Bo Xilai, ended on Monday after five days, has been partial and there are many details of the process that either have not been confirmed or have been omitted, as portray different voices in China.
Even before the trial began on Thursday against the protagonist of China’s biggest political scandal in decades, there were many unknowns about what his diffusion, after the communist authorities ensured that it would be “public”.
Although the rumor to retransmit the trial on live television for journalists near the People’s Court was quickly discarded, the announcement that the court “would update” the details of it in his Weibo account -the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, was a nothing but a novelty.
And is that none of the views against the other two major players of the melodrama, Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, and his former right hand, Wang Lijun, held a year ago, followed the ‘modus operandi’.
Although the official press boasted the “transparency” of the system – “the public believes the transcripts of the trial in real time were a sample of the Communist Party’s efforts to fight corruption,” said the official Xinhua News Agency; several evidence suggests that the method was but a crude theater.
First, it is almost impossible to compare what was issued by the court itself, as only 19 official Chinese media journalists were able to enter the room, while the 200 journalists accredited to cover resigned from outside the court with their smartphones.
For example, there has been no official confirmation on whether, as published by the Hong Kong newspaper ‘South China Morning Post (SCMP), Wang Lijun went to testify in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke a couple of months ago.
In addition, the high rates of the trial decreased over the days, and presumably some-themed ‘delicately’-and were even removed minutes after being posted on Chinese social networks.
Another feature that raises the suspicion is that while the bill is a Trending Topic court since the trial started and has over 500,000 followers, there are only about 70 comments, mostly negative toward Bo.
It would be, moreover, rare that a network censored by the Chinese ‘Great Firewall’, as it is known to censor apparatus the Asian country has not “leaked” the publication of a tricky topic for the Chinese government.
In this line, the SCMP published today, citing three sources of court transcripts that left out positive comments made by Bo Gu about, who in jail for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, and those who left the regime in a “bad place”.
My life has been a tragedy
“My life has been a tragedy … Kailai Also,” Bo said according to the Attorney SCMP, who fell from grace when Wang Lijun, then his chief of police, tried to take refuge in a U.S. consulate in February 2012, which betrayed the former leader crimes in Chongqing (center) and Gu indicted in death of Heywood.
“I hope you can stop this research and leave the last living piece left alive in my family,” implored Bo who look more “human” than the man who supposedly called his wife a”crazy lunatic”
Also the omitted paper said, the five letters the former Party leader wrote to ask him to forgive his wife for the murder of Heywood according to their descriptions of the “heavy-handed” tactics of persuasion given by the Party anti-corruption body, in explaining how to survive a defendant who confessed while denying other crimes could be executed.
However, Bo has not accepted the charges of corruption and abuse of power by which he is charged, which could be used by the prosecution, which has already required to be “severely punished” – against him.
In anticipation of the judgment, the date is still unknown, and there are few spontaneous details in court with a melodramatic “plot for the worst soap opera can have” in alleged words of Bo during his closing argument.
Even the policemen who escorted Bo in the room was genuine. Apparently at least one of the officers who is especially of high status by Chinese standards, was actually a former basketball player brought to “overshadow” the imposing figure the “prince” ousted.
