Grouchy tiger, hidden dragon: Party boss and top cop fall out

Published on Thursday 9 February 2012 03:18

ONE of China’s most famous gang-busting policemen has disappeared after trying to seek asylum in America following a fall-out with one of China’s most powerful local politicians.

Wang Lijun, a crusading police officer and martial arts expert who made his name smashing organised crime gangs and inspired a drama on state television, has gone on leave to recover from anxiety and stress, officials of Chongqing city government said.

Mr Wang, who also is a vice mayor of Chongqing – one of China’s wealthiest and most important cities – was shifted out of his role as police chief last week, prompting speculation of a fall-out with the city’s Communist Party secretary, Bo Xilai, who many believe has his eye on higher office.

Days of speculation about his fate came to a head yesterday with reports that he had gone to the US consulate in the nearby south-western city of Chengdu on Tuesday after a row with Mr Bo seeking sanctuary. The consultate last night confirmed he had been there, but said later left. In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said he left “of his own volition.” She declined to comment on whether he had sought refugee status or asylum.

Employees of businesses near the Chengdu consulate reported a mass police presence in the area late on Tuesday.

Richard Buangan, for the US embassy in Beijing, said there had been “no threat to the consulate”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin simply said he had “no information” about the alleged incident.

In a sign of the sensitivity of the matter, search results for Mr Wang and Mr Bo were blocked on China’s Sina Weibo blogging service and the comments sections attached to online reports about Mr Wang were disabled.

Mr Bo, who sits on the Communist Party’s 25-member Politburo, appointed Mr Wang in 2008 to clean up the force and take on organised crime in a campaign that drew national attention, as well as criticism that it ignored due process.

Mr Wang, 52, entered law enforcement in 1984 and served more than two decades in north-east Liaoning province, where Mr Bo was once governor. He won a reputation for personal bravery in confronting gangs and was once the subject of a TV drama called Iron-Blooded Police Spirits. His law enforcement success led eventually to high political office and a seat in the national parliament, while his association with Mr Bo gave him countrywide fame.

A former commerce minister, Mr Bo is considered a party “princeling”, a reference to the offspring of Communist elders whose connections have won them a place in the Beijing elite.

Mr Bo won huge publicity for his anti-crime campaign and an accompanying drive to revive Communist songs and poems from the 1950s and 1960s, spurring talk that he was seeking promotion. Those campaigns have since lost strength, leading analysts to pull back on speculation that he might be elevated to higher office when the party begins a generational change in leadership later this year.

Sino-analysts say Mr Bo has been cutting ties with the advisers behind the “red songs” and anti-crime drives in hopes of reviving his political fortunes.