Echoes of Bo Xilai Complicate Xi’s Plan to Boost China Party

In December 2010, then-Vice President Xi Jinping visited the southern city of Chongqing in a show of support for Bo Xilai, the local Communist Party chief whose populist appeal had made him a rising political star.

Stopping by a resident’s house, Xi lauded Chongqing leaders for “cracking down on criminal gangs and safeguarding social safety.” He urged officials to “help the common people,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported at the time.