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Full Title - FUSION: Hakluyt & Company — with offices in London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney — was founded by an trio of former British intelligence operatives that connect to Hillary Clinton. Miss Trial via Thread Unroller

US President Barack Obama was told of the alleged murder of British businessman Neil Heywood before foreign secretary William Hague. The president was briefed about the 41-year-old's suspected poisoning within hours of Chinese police chief Wang Lijun walking into a US consulate to tell officials he was murdered. The decision to inform the President so soon after the killing of a British citizen overseas so soon after it happened was described as 'almost unprecedented'. John Tkacik, who worked for the US state department in China for 20 years told The Sunday Telegraph: 'This was a very high official with extraordinary...

No good deed goes unpunished; this must be what US Ambassador to China Gary Locke must have been thinking as a firestorm of criticism erupted over his embassy’s handling of the Chen Guangcheng case. Under great pressure, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner arriving for high profile talks with China’s leadership, the embassy and colleagues in the State Department including Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs Kurt Campbell had negotiated a delicate deal with Chinese counterparts that Chen accepted. Negotiated with the involvement of top legal scholar Jerome Cohen, and based on a...

It was an easy story to miss. On Feb. 22, the Beijing newspaper China Business Herald, citing an anonymous source, reported that PetroChina International Vice President Shen Dingcheng had been missing for weeks. As a single point of data, the story means little. But the disappearance of Shen (which dozens of other Chinese news outlets covered) is likely another piece of the still unfolding and maddeningly opaque saga of Zhou Yongkang. Shen, it turns out, served as Zhou's secretary for part of the 1990s. Formerly one of the most powerful men in China, Zhou ran China's state security apparatus as...

TexGrill Thread: BREAKING NEWS The Chinese-language news has just reported that former Chongqing CCP boss had just been sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict was made by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court. An attorney representing Bo Xilai has already pledged to appeal the verdict. The link is in Chinese but verifies the story.

WUHAN, China—On a visit here in July, Chinese President Xi Jinping went to a lakeside villa where Mao Zedong spent summers in the 1950s enjoying such luxuries as a swimming pool and air conditioning. Opening a new exhibition there that makes no mention of the millions who died under Mao's leadership, Mr. Xi declared that the villa should be a center for educating youth about patriotism and revolution. A week earlier, he went to a village from which Mao attacked Beijing in 1949. There, Mr. Xi vowed that "our red nation will never change color." It isn't just Mr. Xi's...

China's ruling Communist Party accused disgraced politician Bo Xilai of abusing power, taking huge bribes and other crimes on Friday, sealing the fate of a controversial leader whose fall shook a leadership handover due at a congress from November 8. The once high-flying Bo now faces a criminal investigation that stemmed from a murder scandal, and will almost certainly be jailed. With the Communist Party congress about six weeks away, further steps in the case could come before then, helping pave the way for a transition of power, experts said. "Bo Xilai's actions created grave repercussions and did massive harm...

China's Gu Kailai gets suspended death sentence: witnesses By John Ruwitch HEFEI, China | Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:28pm EDT (Reuters) - A Chinese court sentenced the wife of ousted Politburo member Bo Xilai to death on Monday but suspended her execution, witnesses to the hearing said, ending one chapter of a scandal that has shaken the country and engulfed a leadership transition planned for later this year. The sentence means that Gu Kailai is likely to face life in jail for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood last year, provided she does not commit offences in the next two years....

A French national detained in Cambodia, who has been linked to the scandal surrounding China's deposed politician Bo Xilai, will not be extradited, a minister said on Friday. Patrick Henri Devillers will, however, remain in custody. REUTERS - The French architect linked to China’s biggest political scandal in two decades and detained in Cambodia will not be extradited to any country, a minister said, adding another twist to a high-profile case already shrouded in mystery. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong gave no details on what grounds China had requested the arrest of Patrick Henri Devillers, whose whereabouts is unknown, but...

Bo Xilai and Zhang Ziyi mired in $110M Prostitution Sex Scandal The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star is reportedly under investigation by the Chinese government for being paid to have sex with disgraced former top government official, Bo Xilai. Hong Kong's Apple daily and other Chinese media reported that the pair was first introduced by Bo's associate, Xu Ming, who is the founder and chairman of Dalian Shide Group. Sources say Xu confessed to paying Zhang 6 million yuan (S$1.2 million) in 2007, to have sex with her for the first time. He later negotiated a ... http://www.chariweb.com/2012/05/bo-xilai-zhang-ziyi-mired-in-110m.html

Bo Xilai is down, but not out yet Thursday, May 31, 2012 By David Kan Ting, Special to The China Post The oft-quoted Chinese saying, “people's eyes are snow-brilliant,” (人民的眼睛是雪亮的) has a ring of truth, after all. The adage, attributable to Chairman Mao Zedong, asserts that the eyes of people are piercing and sharp, able to see the difference between right and wrong, and to penetrate the smoke and mirrors of the reactionaries and counterrevolutionaries. The chairman seems to have got it right again this time as mainland China is rocked by scandal after scandal. Time magazine called the country...

Bo Xilai, Zhang Ziyi mired in $1.5m prostitution scandal 2012-05-29 19:36 Bo Xilai, the former party secretary of Chongqing, China, and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi are mired in a scandal after a news report said Zhang provided sexual services for Bo in exchange for money. U.S.-based Chinese-language news Website Boxun was quoted by news reports as saying that Bo’s associate Xu Ming, founder and chairman of Dalian Shide Group, arranged secretive meetings for the two more than 10 times from 2007-2011. The report said Zhang was paid about 46 million Taiwanese dollars ($1.55 million) per deal. The meetings all occurred...

China: Two Incidents Open Pandora’s Box – Analysis May 22, 2012 By Bhaskar Roy Two incidents, one regarding Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, and the other involving a blind human rights activist and self-taught lawyer Chen Guangchen, destroyed the myth that the Chinese system is a well oiled machine. Policy, individual, and bitter factional rivalries are kept sealed from the public to ensure the Party’s inviolability. This is the biggest political quake the country has experienced since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. The new age of social communication, the internet, has also damaged the Party’s secrecy. Even people inside the...

Exclusive: China leadership rules Bo case isolated, limits purge: sources By Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley BEIJING | Fri May 25, 2012 2:07am EDT (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao has demanded senior Communist Party officials stifle tensions over the ousting of ambitious politician Bo Xilai and show unity as they prepare for a change of leadership, sources briefed on recent meetings said. Hu urged the party to close ranks at a meeting of about 200 officials early this month at a Beijing hotel, declaring the downfall of Bo - China's biggest political scandal in two decades - to...

Exclusive: China considers delay of key party congress: sources By Benjamin Kang Lim and Nick Edwards BEIJING | Tue May 8, 2012 5:28pm EDT (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party is seriously considering a delay in its upcoming five-yearly congress by a few months amid internal debate over the size and makeup of its top decision-making body, sources said, as the party struggles to finalize a once-in-a-decade leadership change. The two most senior posts, of president and premier, are not considered in much doubt. But any delay in the congress, no matter the official reason, would likely fuel speculation of...

Tiananmen II Minxin Pei : Thu May 10 2012, 03:12 hrs Bo Xilai’s downfall punctures the myth of China’s resilient autocracy Scandals in dictatorships perform several valuable functions. They often discredit their rulers and undermine their legitimacy. In some cases, scandals may even hasten the disintegration of authoritarian regimes by causing infighting among ruling elites or triggering loss of confidence and a crisis. For academics, such scandals frequently provide test cases for validating long-held theories or assumptions about the durability of authoritarian rule. From this perspective, the recent mega-scandal involving Bo Xilai, one of China’s political stars, is particularly useful...

City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy By Ed Flanagan, NBC News CHONGQING, China – Everywhere you go in Chongqing, you can see traces of the complicated legacy of Bo Xilai, the former Communist party chief who ran this municipality of 30 million people until scandal derailed him. At one time destined for a top post in China’s highest echelon of power, the standing committee of the politburo of the Communist Party, Bo aggressively poured money into this municipality in pursuit of his populist agenda. To drive through the windy roads that snake around this hilly metropolis is to see...

China's ruling Communist Party is seriously considering a delay in its upcoming five-yearly congress by a few months amid internal debate over the size and makeup of its top decision-making body, sources said, as the party struggles to finalize a once-in-a-decade leadership change. The two most senior posts, of president and premier, are not considered in much doubt. But any delay in the congress, no matter the official reason, would likely fuel speculation of infighting over the remaining seats in the nine-member politburo standing committee which calls the shots in China. [....] Delay could also further unnerve global financial markets...

CHINA NEWS Updated April 26, 2012, 10:49 p.m. ET Bo's Son Ticketed in Porsche Boston-Area Traffic Stops Surface as Chinese 'Princeling' Seeks to Play Down Lifestyle By JENNIFER LEVITZ and STEVE EDER BOSTON—In an effort to dispel reports that he led a luxurious lifestyle, Bo Guagua, the Chinese "princeling" at Harvard and son of a deposed Communist leader, this week denied he ever drove a Ferrari. But Mr. Bo has racked up three traffic citations in Massachusetts—and according to a person familiar with the matter, he was driving a black Porsche. Mr. Bo is the son of Bo Xilai, the...

Bo Xilai Alleged Financier: George Soros BEIJING: Billionaire oil tycoon George Soros, an executive board member of the International Crisis Group, has played a major role in deposed Chinese Communist Chongqing Boss, Bo Xilai’s rise to fame and fortune in Dalian and Chongqing. ... http://www.dallasblog.com/201204241008984/dallas-blog/bo-xilai-alleged-financier-george-soros.html