CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA – As show trials go, the drama featuring Bo Xilai, the once-swaggering, media-savvy former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief of Chongqing, veered anomalously into improvisation. Before the proceedings began, the conventional wisdom was that Bo’s trial had been carefully scripted and rehearsed to portray a forlorn and penitent sinner confessing his crimes and apologizing to the Party.
加州克莱蒙特——随着审判秀的进行，以神气活现、面对媒体应付自如著称的前中共重庆市委书记薄熙来为主角的这场闹剧出人意料地演变成了即兴表演。审判开始前，传统观点是对薄熙来的审判经过精心的编制和排练，薄本该扮演一个为自己罪行忏悔、向党致歉的绝望悔过的罪人。