Book description
The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo is a shocking and
revelatory expos of China's most controversial 'statesman' Bo Xilai,
by journalist John Garnaut, available exclusively as a digital-only
Penguin Special.
When news of the murder trial of prominent Communist Party leader Bo
Xilai's wife reached Western attention, it was apparent that, as with
many events in the secretive upper echelons of Chinese politics, there
was more to the story. Now, as the Party's 18th National Congress
oversees the biggest leadership transition in decades, and installs
the Bo family's long-time rival Xi Jinping as president, China's
rulers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep their poisonous
internal divisions behind closed doors.
Bo Xilai's breathtaking fall from grace is an extraordinary tale of
excess, murder, defection, political purges and ideological clashes
going back to Mao himself, as the princeling sons of the revolutionary
heroes ascend to control of the Party. China watcher John Garnaut
examines how Bo's stellar rise through the ranks troubled his more
reformist peers, as he revived anti-'capitalist roader' sentiment,
even while his family and associates enjoyed the more open economy's
opportunities. Amid fears his imminent elevation to the powerful
Standing Committee was leading China towards another destructive
Cultural Revolution, have his opponents seized their chance to destroy
Bo and what he stood for? The trigger was his wife Gu Kailai's
apparently paranoid murder of an English family friend, which exposed
the corruption and brutality of Bo's outwardly successful
administration of the massive city of Chongqing. It also led to the
one of the highest-level attempted defections in Communist China's
history when Bo's right-hand man, police chief Wang Lijun, tried to
escape the ruins of his sponsor's reputation.
Garnaut explains how this incredible glimpse into the very personal
power struggles within the CCP exposes the myth of the unified
one-party state. With China approaching super-power status, today's
leadership shuffle may set the tone for international relations for
decades. Here, Garnaut reveals a particularly Chinese spin on the old
adage that the personal is political.
'His insight is unique and well applied to this extraordinary,
intergenerational set of events that Hollywood couldn't dream up if it
tried' ABC Sydney
John Garnaut is China correspondent for the Sydney Morning
Herald and The Age, in the Fairfax Media stable, and also
writes for Foreign Policy magazine. He joined Fairfax in 2002 as an
economics journalist after working as a commercial lawyer. His work on
China has been recognised with several awards, including the 2009
Walkley Award for Scoop of the Year, for reporting the detention of
Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu. John lived in Beijing for two
years in the 1980s, while his father was posted as the Australian
ambassador, and returned there with his wife and children in 2007.
