Was Bo Xilai an enforcer of justice on the corrupt or a corrupt enforcer of justice?
In reading up on some of the fallout from China’s NPC and CPPCC, I keep coming back to this one particular quote. Early in the Qin dynasty, the man perhaps most responsible for the creation of singular Chinese state, Lord Shang, wrote:
To club together and keep your mouth shut is to be good; to be alienated from and spy on each other is to be a scoundrel. If you glorify the good, errors will be hidden; if you put scoundrels in charge, crime will be punished. (Fairbank)
So then the question becomes, who is the scoundrel? Is it better to hide errors and be thought of as good? Is it better to empower the scoundrel if it means justice will be wrought?
Is Bo Xilai a scoundrel or was he just part of the club? Is the CCP a club, or a scoundrel in its own right? Is China better of with a scoundrel at the head? Is justice worth suffering at the hands of that scoundrel?
