China's Chongqing Party Leader Dismissed

On March 15, Li Yuanchao, head of the Communist Party of China's (CPC's) powerful Organization Department announced the CPC Central Committee's decision to dismiss Bo Xilai from his post as Chongqing Party secretary. He will be replaced by Zhang Dejiang, the current vice premier. The decision came just a day after Premier Wen Jiabao's rare criticism of the Chongqing municipal leadership's handling of the Wang Lijun incident. The decision also suggests that a consensus has been reached within Beijing's top leadership to oust Bo.

A promising leader with a prominent family background — his father, Bo Yibo, helped found the CPC — Bo was considered a strong contender for top CPC leadership as early as the 1990s. His charismatic and often outspoken leadership brought him early national attention in Dalian, Liaoning province. But his leadership style contrasts sharply with the increasingly collectivist and technocratic CPC leadership. Paradoxically, while it was this leadership style that allowed him to climb the ranks of the CPC leadership, it was also his ultimate undoing. The dismissal does not yet mean an official end to Bo's political career, but it is no doubt a decisive warning against the kind of aggressive social-economic initiatives for which Bo is known — the so-called "Chongqing model" — as well as his unorthodox attempt at furthering his CPC career.