China’s Bo Xilai gets life for corruption

A Chinese court sentenced ousted senior politician Bo Xilai to life in jail yesterday after finding him guilty of corruption and abuse of power, a term that gives him little chance of staging a political comeback.

Bo was a rising star in China’s leadership circles and cultivated a loyal following through his charisma and populist, quasi-Maoist policies, especially among those left out in the cold by China’s anything-for- growth economic policies.

But his career was stopped short last year by a murder scandal in which his wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of poisoning a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who had been a family friend.