Chinese Politics: Bo Xilai’s fall signals victory for China’s reformers - by Mark Mackinnon

The fall of Bo Xilai, once the rising star of China’s Communist Party, has been spectacular to watch. Initially purged last month because his superiors feared he might launch a “new Cultural Revolution,” the ouster was shocking enough to spark rumours that Mr. Bo and his allies were planning to seize power in Beijing via a coup d’état.

The very public humiliation of Mr. Bo – now stripped of all party posts after previously being seen as a shoo-in to be named to the Standing Committee – has brought to the surface the decades-old split that pits a group of liberal-minded reformers like Premier Wen Jiabao against a hard-line wing of the party that believes it is time for China, after 20 years of unprecedented economic growth accompanied by widening inequality, to increase state control and turn back toward its socialist roots.

It’s the biggest rupture inside China’s ruling elite since 1989, when Zhao Ziyang was ousted as Communist Party chairman after he sided with the pro-democracy demonstrators on Tiananmen Square. The shift comes at a critical juncture, just months before the Communist Party will unveil its new leadership lineup, with seven of the nine current members of the all-powerful Standing Committee of the Politburo set to retire this fall. The new Politburo lineup will set the direction for the world’s rising superpower for the coming decade.

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