The third day of the Bo Xilai trial has revealed scenes of family life that contrasts starkly with the picture of total estrangement painted by the media and by Bo’s defense strategy.
Leading up to the current trial media accounts of the relationship between Bo and his wife Gu Kailai had created the impression that the couple had been living apart since 2000 when Gu began spending most of her time overseas in Europe and Britain. That impression had been compounded by Bo’s characterization of Gu as “crazy” as well as by reports of numerous extramarital affairs by both Bo and Gu.
However, a declaration by Gu offered into evidence Saturday — the third day of Bo’s trial on charges of corruption and abuse of power — paints a very different picture of the couple’s domestic life as recently as the late summer of 2011, just months before Gu’s murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. She is currently serving a suspended death sentence likely to be commuted to a life sentence.
The Gu declaration was offered by the prosecution to show that Bo was well aware of the many financial gifts bestowed on his family by developer Xu Ming, a longtime Bo crony. Among them were a $3.5-mil. villa on the French Riviera and a trip to Africa for the couple’s son Bo Guagua and a friend. The two young men had been flown on a private Jet from Dubai to the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in August of 2011, about six months before Wang Lijun sought asylum at the US consulate in Chengdu, triggering the events that led to Bo’s downfall in April of 2012.
“Bo Xilai asked if it was safe for Guagua to go and I said Xu Ming had made all the arrangements, so he stopped worrying,” reads Gu’s declaration. “When he came back, Guagua brought presents. He brought Bo Xilai a big piece of meat from a rare animal. Guagua said we could eat it raw but Bo said we needed to steam it. Guagua said it was very expensive, he was angry that it would be ruined. But we steamed it and all ate it and it tasted pretty good. We ate it for a month.”
The fact that the couple not only discussed their son’s trip but also dined together on the African mystery meat for a month tends to discredit Bo’s version of their relations. It also suggests the possibility that they may even have discussed the Heywood murder. At a minimum it suggests that the couple may not have been estranged at all, or if they were, that the estrangement had ended prior to the Heywood murder.
Rather than its implications for Bo’s defense strategy, the Gu declaration was seized on by Chinese media for its mention of an expensive African meat meant to be eaten raw. Speculation has ranged from Iberian ham from Spain which reportedly goes for about $650 per kilogram to biltong, a South African version of beef jerky.
