As of late Bo Xilai has come under alot of scrutiny. Bo Xilai is a former Chinese politician who held many top seats in the Chinese government but was removed from his position amongst heavy allegations. The allegations all started when Bo Xilai's wife was accused of murdering English businessman Neil Haywood in November 2011. The problem arose when Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun went to the US consulate with documents about their crime and other scandalous info and threatened to turn them in. Wang was then detained and sent to local authorities by Xilai's police force where he was interrogated and investigated.
This led to public outcry and eventually Bo Xilai was stripped from his position and now faces serious out-lashes from the government and public. The Chinese Communist Party has now begun a propaganda campaign to dehumanize him signifying the impact of this case for not only Xilai but the whole Chinese government itself. The situation is truly an ironic one as Xilai used to manipulate the media himself for personal gains now gets a taste of how dangerous the media in a controlled state can be. The country has asked for many of the news and media agencies in the country to show support for the state and to attack Xilai in an attempt to "unify" the country but this has been a difficult task as the country is divided on the issue. Many people in the country such as the pro-communist supporters are in favor of Xilai and have supported him extensively while many liberal or progressive figures in the country are opposed to Xilai and viewed him as a criminal. David Bandurski an editor for the Chinese Media Project in Hong Kong described the situation,
“We haven’t seen this kind of direct meddling with the media across the board in a long, long time...You can really sense the anxiety and the uneasiness. They’re pushing so intently this message of unity and solidarity, and you know all is not well.”
The case is having an enormous impact on media in China and even some abroad. According to BBC news a Chinese based website located in North Carolina has been hacked and shut down due to their extensive coverage on the story. The manager of the site has stated that Chinese security forces has shut down the website in an attempt to stop the coverage of the news spreading internationally. This alone signifies how interesting the case really is as China doesn't want any bad press overseas that can potentially be harmful for their government.
Media in China is an extremely sensitive and private issue due to media in the country being state run and monitored. Certain media networks that are popular internationally, such as Google and Facebook, are banned in China due to fears of their "western" influence. However, many in the country turn a blind eye to the censorship due to the strong economic growth the country has been achieving over the past decade which has helped modernize the country and reduce poverty.
Here's the Wall Street Journal with some interesting coverage on the case