Fallen star’s impact shakes Chinese leaders

China has nearly mopped up a murder scandal that has roiled the country for months, but the last step — dealing with a fallen political star — will be the most delicate of all.

Bo Xilai’s former right-hand man and police chief, Wang Lijun, was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison for making a thwarted defection bid, and for helping Bo’s wife cover up the murder of a British businessman. Bo’s wife and other figures in the scandal were sentenced previously, and Beijing is keen to settle the fate of Bo himself before a change in leadership expected next month.

Ever since Wang’s thwarted defection bid at a US consulate in February made the scandal public, the question of what to do about Bo, then a powerful party boss in Chongqing, has bedeviled China’s leaders. It strained relations among communist power brokers just as they were cutting deals to transfer of power to younger leaders; deciding whether to prosecute him or merely purge him from the party became part of the bargaining.