Bo Xilai Axed as Chongqing Party Chief After Wen’s Criticism

China ousted Bo Xilai as Communist Party secretary of one the nation’s biggest cities in the strongest rebuke of a Politburo member in at least five years as Premier Wen Jiabao seeks to end a political scandal before a leadership change due later this year. Zhang Dejiang, 65, a North Korean-educated vice premier and member of China’s ruling Politburo, will replace Bo in Chongqing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Bo’s former police chief, Wang Lijun, is under investigation after he spent a night in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan, last month prompting speculation that he was seeking asylum. Enlarge image Former Communist Party secretary of Chongqing Bo Xilai Bo Xilai, then Chinese Communist Party secretary of Chongqing, at the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 9, 2012. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg Bo Axed After China Government Probe Play Video March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Bo Xilai has been replaced as party secretary of Chongqing Municipality, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, after one of his top lieutenants spent the night in a U.S. consulate last month. Zhang Dejiang, a North Korean-educated member of China’s ruling Politburo, will replace Bo as the head of Chongqing. The replacement comes after Bo’s former police chief, Wang Lijun, went to the U.S. consulate last month in Chengdu, prompting speculation that he was seeking asylum. Stephen Engle reports from Beijing on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia" with Rishaad Salamat. (Source: Bloomberg) Enlarge image Zhang Dejiang, Newly Appointed Party Secretary of Chongqing Zhang Dejiang attends a National People's Congress plenary session on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg Bo, 62, son of one of the founders of the People’s Republic and a former commerce minister, drew attention to himself for his moves in Chongqing to increase social spending, boost state- led financing and revive songs and slogans from the era of Chairman Mao Zedong. “China hasn’t resolved the pitfall of leadership transition, the traditional Achilles' heel of authoritarian regimes -- elite politics remain unpredictable and dangerous,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. Wen may have telegraphed Bo’s removal yesterday during his press conference to close the annual meeting of China’s legislature. “The current party committee and government in Chongqing must seriously reflect on the Wang Lijun incident and learn lessons from that incident,” Wen told reporters in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. “What has happened shows that any practice that we take must be based on the experience and lessons we have gained from history.” ‘Red’ Revival Wen warned of the dangers of returning to the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, contrasting with Bo’s revival of “red” themes in Chongqing aimed at broadening his appeal to ordinary Chinese who feel bruised by 30-plus years of modernization. Chongqing is a South Carolina-sized municipality of about 30 million people in central China. After today’s announcement, a Communist Party website continued to list Bo as one of the 25 members of the Politburo. Wang Lijun was removed as vice mayor of Chongqing, Xinhua reported. Bo was seen yesterday in Beijing at the closing ceremony of the meeting of the National People’s Congress. On March 9, he met with reporters in Beijing, telling them he wasn’t a target of a government probe into Wang and apologizing for drawing so much attention to himself. “I feel like it came out of nowhere,” Bo said of Wang’s consulate visit. “It looks like that in any place, no matter how good the situation is, we have to be alert and be prepared to prevent unexpected things from happening.” The last time a Politburo member lost a top post was in 2007, when Shanghai Communist Party Chief Chen Liangyu was removed, replaced by Xi Jinping, who is now in line to become China’s next top leader. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at mforsythe@bloomberg.net; John Liu in Beijing at jliu42@bloomberg.net