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August 26th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
“You are acting crazily,” Mrs Gu told her suitor, according to Mr Bo. “No, I
used to be crazy, but now I am sane,” Mr Wang allegedly replied.
Former police chief Wang Lijun (Reuters)
Mr Bo said Mr Wang had visited his home every day because he was drawn to his
wife, and suggested the relationship did not go unrequited.
“They had an extremely special relationship. I was fed up with it,” said Mr
Bo. “Gu Kailai even brought Wang’s shoes into my house. I told Zhang Xiaojun
(an aide) to get rid of them immediately”.
But when Mr Bo uncovered the relationship, his city’s police chief knew he had
made a potentially fatal mistake. “He knew my character. He hurt my family.
He hurt my feelings,” Mr Bo said.
There had long been rumours in Chongqing that the previously close bond
between Mr Bo and Mr Wang was shattered when they became tangled in a love
triangle.
But the allegations by Mr Bo raise new and intriguing questions about the
planning of, and the motive for,
the murder of Neil Heywood. Mr Wang had previously confessed that he
helped Mrs Gu plan Mr Heywood’s killing.
Mr Bo’s tale of mad passion caused an instant sensation on the Chinese
internet, with one popular post suggesting that the lovers were doomed from
the start: Mrs Gu was a Scorpio while Mr Wang was a Capricorn and therefore
incompatible.
Before revealing the drama in his household, Mr Bo had earlier ridiculed the
prosecution’s closing statement, saying: “Even the lowest level television
soap cannot have this kind of plot,” he said.
Responding to accusations that he must have been aware of the luxurious
lifestyle his family was living, under his nose, Mr Bo asked: “Is Gu Kailai
a civilised woman or not?
“Did she want me to love her or not? Would she have come and bothered me with
these trifles every day? I was the governor of Liaoning province,” he added.
To accusations that his 25-year-old son, Guagua, spent huge sums travelling
the world and carousing, Mr Bo said: “If Guagua kept asking for money for
fancy watches and cars and international travel, if he wanted us to pay for
his friends and owed the bank huge sums of money, would I have loved such a
son?” Instead, Mr Bo said, his family was so frugal that he was still wore
padded winter trousers that his mother had bought for him in the 1960s.
Mr Bo also repeated that much of the evidence against him had been coerced.
“All of the written confessions I signed before were made against my will,” he
said, adding that he had hoped, by confessing, to win rehabilitation.
“I had a hope deep in my heart that I would not be expelled from the Party, I
would keep membership and I would keep my political life.”
It was unclear whether Mr Bo’s impressive rhetoric would win him more public
support, with hundreds of thousands of people reading his statement on the
live-feed from court.
But it did little to help his legal case, and his lawyers even admitted that
it was only after 2005, when Mr Bo was promoted to higher office, that
corruption had stopped. “He woke up,” they said.
Mr
Bo’s defiance may also cost him dearly, in the form of a tougher sentence.
“He not only denied crimes that have been fully backed up with solid evidence,
but he also recanted his earlier testimony,” the prosecutors said. “His
attitude is to refuse to confess wrongdoing… he should receive harsh
punishment.”
If convicted, Mr Bo technically faces the death penalty, although a member of
China’s Communist Politburo has never been executed.
As he made his final statement, perhaps the last statement he will ever make
in public, Mr Bo said: “I know I am not a perfect man, I am subjective and
easily angered. I have made some serious mistakes and problems. I failed to
manage my family.”
The court will reconvene at a later date to reveal the verdict.
Additional reporting by Adam Wu
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