The spectacular trial of Bo Xilai seized the media's attention last week as the fallen politburo member - still widely admired in Chongqing and Dalian and heavily connected among the Party elite - defended himself with unexpected vigor against charges of corruption, and hardly pausing to implicate his wife and subordinates in murder, mutual poisoning and financial skullduggery.

This week on Sinica, Kaiser and Jeremy host two guests: Ed Wong from the New York Times and James Miles of The Economist for a closer look at what some Chinese commentators are calling China's "trial of the century". Join us for an in-depth discussion to the trial which looks not only at what this means for media transparency in China, but also extends to historical comparisons with previous political purges, including the famous case against Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four following the Cultural Revolution.

Enjoy Sinica? As always, let us remind you that you can always use iTunes to subscribe to Sinica. To do this, just click on the "File" menu and select the option "Subscribe to Podcast". When prompted, enter the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica and iTunes will download all of our shows to your computer, updating automatically as new episodes are released. Alternately, we welcome all listeners to download this show as a standalone mp3 file. We hope you enjoy it.
 said on
August 31, 2013
Recommendations

Jeremy

The twitter feed of Jorge Guajardo

https://twitter.com/jorge_guajardo

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The Rise and Fall of the House of Bo: How A Murder Exposed The Cracks In China's Leadership by John Garnaut

http://www.amazon.com/Rise-House-Penguin-Specials-ebook/dp/B00A3Q9ER6

Ed

A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel: Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Lucky-Holiday-Hotel-Struggle/dp/1610392736

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Blocked on Weibo: What Gets Suppressed on China's Version of Twitter (And Why) by Jason Q. Ng

http://www.amazon.com/Blocked-Weibo-Suppressed-Version-Twitter/dp/159558871X
 said on
September 5, 2013
I know it should be a privilege to hear the commentary and discussion from Kaiser, Jeremy and all your very experienced an knowledgeable guests, but somehow my eyes glaze over after 10 min... more so than English class in High School or American Political History in college. Well, maybe not more than american political history...
 said on
September 5, 2013
I think we've been spoiled by the light summer podcasts.
 said on
September 7, 2013
Personally, I enjoyed this, as I have the recent shows on Burma and Egypt and the Arts in China. When Sinica plays to their strengths - political speculation, with a fair to high level of expertise and nous, and/or, has in guests who are truly involved in the subject under discussion and can maintain a focus to boot, then they are truly interesting and entertaining. When not they can be appalling - the show on Chinese medicine, for example, would have to be the most tendentious and self-contradicting piece of crap I've listened to outside of talk-back radio.
 said on
September 11, 2013
To present an opinion different from 舒雅's above, I really enjoyed this one. Good speculation was combined with interesting facts. Good job, guys.
 said on
October 16, 2013
I know there are a lot of opinions about the Bo Xilai trial. But it's really difficult to stay optimistic about the development of transparency inside the country. Economic reform is desperately needed to prevent China from falling into a worst case dictatorship. Many like to see little improvements as better than nothing but they might also have reverse effects. While extreme caution is needed, we should look for realistic optimism also!

Regards,

Beijing Report ~ http://www.beijingreport.com
Mark Lesson Studied