Former Police Chief Charged in China

By JEREMY PAGE

Getty Images

Wang Lijun, seen here at the annual National People's Congress in Beijing on March 6, 2011.

BEIJING?The former police chief of the Chinese city of Chongqing who fled to a U.S. consulate in February?triggering the scandal surrounding former top Communist Party official Bo Xilai?has been charged with defection, power abuse, bribe-taking and "bending the law for selfish ends," state media said.

Bo Xilai's former police chief, who fled to a U.S. consulate in February, has been charged with defection and abuse of power. The WSJ's Andrew Browne explains what this could mean for fallen party chief Bo Xilai.

The move?coming just weeks ahead of a sensitive once-a-decade leadership transition for the world's No. 2 economy?brings the party one step closer to resolving the fate of Mr. Bo, whose ouster as Chongqing party chief and other posts earlier this year suggested deep political divisions within China's leadership.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said late Wednesday that prosecutors in the southwestern city of Chengdu had filed charges against Wang Lijun with the city's Intermediate People's Court, which had agreed to accept the case and would select a date for a trial. Mr. Wang?once Mr. Bo's lieutenant in Chongqing and a nationally known crime fighter?threw Chinese politics into turmoil in February when he sought refuge in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and told U.S. diplomats there he had evidence that Mr. Bo's wife was involved in the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood.

The Chongqing Drama

See key dates in the death of Neil Heywood in Chongqing and the drama surrounding Bo Xilai.

Players in China's Leadership Purge

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Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of Mr. Heywood's murder last month and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve?a penalty that lawyers say is usually commuted to a life sentence in prison.

The series of events that began with Mr. Wang's flight to the consulate threw into doubt the fate of Mr. Bo, a charismatic leader widely seen as a candidate for higher office and a standard-bearer for a political faction that advocated a greater role for the state in economic and social life.

The fall of Bo Xilai, once a rising star in Chinese politics, has plunged the country into its biggest crisis since Tiananmen Square. In this documentary, The Wall Street Journal examines how his downfall has altered the debate about China's future.

Mr. Wang was detained by Chinese security agents after leaving the U.S. consulate, and could also now face a stiff sentence, analysts and party insiders say. That prospect has prompted some U.S. politicians to criticize the White House for not offering Mr. Wang asylum.

His indictment had been expected soon. Mr. Wang's trial is the next key step in the party leadership's efforts to draw a line under its worst political scandal in a generation in time for the leadership change.

But the timing of the announcement was a surprise as it came on the same day that Hillary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, was in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders on what is expected to be her last visit to China before stepping down from her post.

The atmosphere for the talks had already been soured by open disagreement over issues including Syria and the South China Sea, as well as the abrupt cancellation of a meeting between Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Xi Jinping.

U.S. officials said they hadn't been warned in advance about the announcement on Mr. Wang, and it hadn't come up in Mrs. Clinton's meetings, although they had expected some kind of charges to be brought against Mr. Wang at some point.

Xinhua quoted the indictment saying that Mr. Wang "had clearly known that Bogu Kailai was under serious suspicion of murdering Neil Heywood, but consciously neglected his duty and bent the law for personal gain so that Bogu Kailai would not be held legally responsible." Chinese media have consistently referred to Ms. Gu as "Bogu Kailai" without explaining why.

Xinhua gave no further details on that charge against Mr. Wang.

But during Ms. Gu's trial, prosecutors said she had plotted with Mr. Wang to have Mr. Heywood framed as a drug dealer and then shot dead while being arrested, but Mr. Wang had backed out of the plan, according to observers.

The indictment against Mr. Wang said he had "left his post without authorization and defected to the United States Consulate General in Chengdu," according to Xinhua.

Reuters

Bo Xilai, left, and his police chief, Wang Lijun, in Chongqing in January.

People familiar with the episode say Mr. Wang arranged a meeting at the consulate on the pretext that he wanted to discuss affairs relating to his work as vice mayor of Chongqing, and then drove the 200 miles from Chongqing to Chengdu on Feb. 6.

He didn't formally request political asylum during his overnight stay, but asked for protection from Mr. Bo, according to people familiar with the matter. After some discussion, he agreed that his best course of action was to hand himself to central-government authorities, the people said.

Mr. Wang was accused of abuse of power in the indictment for illegally using "technical reconnaissance measures" without approval, or by fabricating approval?an apparent reference to allegations that he frequently tapped telephone conversations as police chief.

He was also accused of using his position to "accept massive bribes in a bid to secure benefits for other individuals," Xinhua said, without saying who those individuals were or providing any other details.

The indictment made no mention of Mr. Bo, who Chinese authorities said in April had been sacked from party posts and placed under investigation for unspecified "serious disciplinary violations."

Authorities have yet to announce whether he, too, will face criminal charges, but analysts and party insiders say an announcement is likely before the party congress to select the new leadership in the fall.

Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution, said the indictment against Mr. Wang left the party leeway to penalize Mr. Bo for involvement in the same alleged crimes, including the coverup of Mr. Heywood's murder.

"That's bad news for Bo Xilai. It means that although the Gu Kailai case is closed, other people can still be charged in relation to it," he said.

Xinhua didn't give any indication of when the trial would be. Ms. Gu was tried about two weeks after her indictment was announced and the verdict was announced 10 days after the one-day trial.

Analysts said Mr. Wang was certain to be found guilty, given the 98% conviction rate in China, where the party controls the police, prosecutors and judges. But he was likely to escape the death penalty in exchange for cooperation on other cases, the analysts said.

?Monica Langley and Brian Spegele contributed to this article.

Write to Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared September 6, 2012, on page A10 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Police Chief in Bo Scandal Faces Charges in Chengdu.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443589304577633173007673932.html?mod=rss_about_china

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