China ejects Bo from elite ranks, wife suspected of murder

REUTERS: China’s Communist Party has suspended former high-flying politician Bo Xilai from its top ranks and named his wife a suspect in the murder of a British businessman, a dramatic turn in a scandal shaking leadership succession plans.

The decision to banish Bo from the Central Committee and its Politburo effectively ends the career of China’s brashest and most controversial politician, widely seen as pressing for a top post in China’s next leadership to be settled later this year.

The official Xinhua news agency confirmed a Reuters report several hours earlier on Tuesday that Bo had been suspended from his party posts, and separately reported that his wife, Gu Kailai, was suspected in the murder of Briton Neil Heywood. “Comrade Bo Xilai is suspected of being involved in serious disciplinary violations,” said Xinhua, citing a decision by the central party leadership to banish Bo from its top ranks.

“Police set up a team to reinvestigate the case of the British national Neil Heywood who was found dead in Chongqing,” the news agency said, referring to the sprawling southwestern municipality where Bo was party chief until he was dismissed in March as a scandal surrounding him unfolded.

Evidence indicated Heywood’s death was a homicide and Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, an assistant in Bo’s household, were “highly suspected,” said the news agency, which cited a dispute over unspecified “economic interests” between Gu and Heywood that “constantly intensified”.

Gu and Zhang had been “handed over to the judicial authorities,” Xinhua said - meaning they have been detained.

The Central Committee is a council of about 200 full members that meets about once a year and the Politburo is a more powerful body of about two dozen Central Committee members.

The announcements are the latest twist in a furore over Bo and his family that erupted after his vice mayor, Wang Lijun, fled to a U.S. consulate for 24 hours in February, alleging that Gu was involved in Heywood’s death.

The Communist Party is grappling with the volatile scandal months before it unveils a new line-up of leaders, a group Bo once yearned to join.