Chongqing and Bo XiLai

A couple of people have asked me privately what I think about the current news in Chonqing, specifically the downfall of Bo XiLai and the investigation into the British citizen's death last November. I'm going to answer here.

1. Chongqing isn't just a place I served as a Peace Corps volunteer; it became my home, a place I remember fondly, and I still have close friends there, so I can't be completely objective.

2. My Chinese friends in Chongqing spoke highly of what Bo XiLai did for the city, specifically allowing people with rural hukou access to medical care at the better hospitals and the chance to change their hukou from rural to city. Also, they spoke highly of the crackdown of the Chongqing mafia and attempts to weed out corruption in the police force.

3. My opinion is that Bo XiLai made the Party lose face when his underling tried to get asylum at the U.S. Consulate and for that reason was removed. In my experience in China, the real reasons for things are not spoken of, but a less direct route is usually taken. I learned to not take the face value of anything. So whatever reason the Party gave, I'm disinclined to believe it is the true reason.

4. That said, I was shocked Wen JiaBao called the Cultural Revolution a tragedy (explaining indirectly that Bo's embrace of Maoist themes was unacceptable); usually you hear Deng's line that Mao was "70% good and 30% bad" repeated as a justification for the Cultural Revolution. In reality, it was a (hellish, infuriating) tragedy and to have it acknowledged as such publicly was something I never thought I'd hear.

5. The British man's death: drinking culture in China is extreme and it is entirely believable this guy died of alcohol poisoning, especially if he didn't usually drink much. Even Chinese citizens have died as a result of over-imbibing at banquets. Fun fact: a foreign teacher at my school spent the night in the gutter in front of our school, passed out from alcohol, and the police left him there because they didn't want to get involved with a foreigner. This guy was eventually deported for lying about his residency eligibility, but he could have easily died in the street and no one would have gotten involved. (Kids: if you go to China, don't trust someone is going to take care of you like they might elsewhere.) A bottle of cheap baijiu (the common Chinese liquor) is 120 proof, costs about $1 (sometimes as low as $.14!) a bottle and is available 24/7 every 100 feet or so. Chinese drinking culture is HNL: a 'hole 'nother level.'

6. I always chuckle inside when I read Chongqing described as a "sprawling metropolis/megacity/urban nightmare of 30 million people no one has ever heard of" because yes, that's pretty much Chongqing. I still miss it so much. It's like nowhere else I've been and I doubt I'll live that kind of life again. It's too bad people are finally hearing about Chongqing due to this scandal instead of for their amazing street barbecue and mala girls (ha) but hey, at least now people sort of have a frame of reference for where I spent 2+ years.