• pub­lished: 22 Aug 2013
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Bo Xilai, the for­mer Com­mu­nist Party chief in Chongqing, was once seen as a high-fly­er tipped for top of­fice. But he has been ex­pelled from the Com­mu­nist Party, par­lia­ment and is to face pros­e­cu­tion. His wife was given a sus­pend­ed death sen­tence for the mur­der of British busi­ness­man Neil Hey­wood last year. The BBC looks at how China's biggest po­lit­i­cal scan­dal in years un­fold­ed. 2 Feb 2012: Chongqing city gov­ern­ment an­nounces that its pop­u­lar po­lice chief, Wang Lijun, has been shift­ed to an­oth­er job. It is a de­mo­tion - and is the first pub­lic con­fir­ma­tion that the po­lice­man has fall­en out with Chongqing's Com­mu­nist Party boss, Bo Xilai. 6 Feb: Wang flees to the US con­sulate in Cheng­du, near Chongqing. Many be­lieve he went there to seek asy­lum. He spends the night at the con­sulate, which is sur­round­ed by Chi­nese po­lice. 7 Feb: The po­lice chief is per­suad­ed to leave the con­sulate after Chongqing's mayor rush­es to the scene to talk to him. Wang emerges into the wait­ing arms of the law and then dis­ap­pears. 8 Feb: The Chongqing gov­ern­ment says that be­cause of over-work Wang is suf­fer­ing from stress and is now re­ceiv­ing "hol­i­day-style med­i­cal treat­ment". In fact, he is under in­ves­ti­ga­tion and in de­ten­tion. 5-14 Mar: Bo Xilai takes his seat at China's an­nu­al par­lia­men­tary ses­sion in Bei­jing. He keeps an un­usu­al­ly low pro­file amid ru­mours that Mr Wang's ac­tions have tar­nished his chances of pro­mo­tion to the party's polit­buro Stand­ing Com­mit­tee later this year. 14 Mar: At a news con­fer­ence, Chi­nese Pre­mier Wen Ji­abao in­di­rect­ly crit­i­cis­es Bo Xilai for his han­dling of the Wang Lijun in­ci­dent. It is the first com­ment from a se­nior na­tion­al lead­er on the issue, and shows Mr Bo is in a pre­car­i­ous po­si­tion. Wang Lijun in court dur­ing the ver­dict in Cheng­du, 24 Sept 2012 Wang's flight to the US con­sulate trig­gered Bo Xilai's down­fall 15 Mar: China an­nounces that Bo Xilai has been re­moved from his post as party chief in Chongqing. Of­fi­cials con­firm that this is be­cause of the Wang Lijun in­ci­dent. He dis­ap­pears from pub­lic view. 20 Mar: A leaked audio record­ing sug­gests Bo Xilai and his po­lice chief fell out when Wang told his boss of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion into Mr Bo's fam­i­ly. An­oth­er ru­mour sug­gests Mr Bo could be linked to the death of a British busi­ness­man, Neil Hey­wood, who died in Chongqing last Novem­ber. 26 Mar: UK gov­ern­ment con­firms it has asked China to re-ex­am­ine Neil Hey­wood's death. 10 Apr: China an­nounces that Bo Xilai has been stripped of his Com­mu­nist Party posts and that his wife, Gu Kailai, and an or­der­ly are being in­ves­ti­gat­ed in con­nec­tion with Mr Hey­wood's death. 25 Apr: Bo Xilai's son, Bo Guagua, writes an open let­ter to his uni­ver­si­ty, Har­vard. He in­sists he does not live an ex­trav­a­gant life and says his ed­u­ca­tion has been fund­ed by schol­ar­ships and his moth­er's earn­ings as a lawyer. He says he has no com­ment to make about the in­ves­ti­ga­tion. 26 Apr: Bo Xilai's elder broth­er, Bo Xiy­ong, re­signs his post at a state-owned Chi­nese com­pa­ny in Hong Kong. It was re­vealed that he was using an­oth­er name to con­duct busi­ness there. 26 Apr: The New York Times re­ports that Bo Xilai ran a wire-tap­ping net­work across Chongqing, with his of­fi­cials even lis­ten­ing in to a phone call in­volv­ing Pres­i­dent Hu Jin­tao. Bo Xilai's wife, Gu Kailai Gu Kailai stood trial over Neil Hey­wood's death 23 May: Bo Xilai's name is not in­clud­ed on the list of del­e­gates for the mu­nic­i­pal­i­ty's party con­fer­ence, an in­di­ca­tion of an im­mi­nent major reshuf­fle. 24 May: Bo Xilai's son, Bo Guagua, grad­u­ates from Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty's Kennedy School of Gov­ern­ment in the US. 17 June: Cam­bo­dia de­tains French ar­chi­tect Patrick Dev­illers, who knew Bo Xilai and his wife, re­port­ed­ly at the re­quest of the Chi­nese au­thor­i­ties. 18 June: Chongqing's new lead­er, Zhang De­jiang, tells a mu­nic­i­pal party congress that the Bo Xilai scan­dal "grave­ly dam­aged" the image of the coun­try and the Com­mu­nist Party. 26 July: Gu Kailai and her aide Zhang Xi­ao­jun have been charged with "in­ten­tion­al homi­cide," China's Xin­hua state news agen­cy re­ports. 9 Au­gust: Gu Kailai and Zhang Xi­ao­jun go on trial for mur­der in Hefei. The court says they do not con­test the charges, and ad­journs ahead of a ver­dict. 24 Septem­ber: Wang Lijun is con­vict­ed and jailed for 15 years - a more le­nient sen­tence than ex­pect­ed be­cause he co-op­er­at­ed with the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion. 28 Septem­ber: Bo Xilai is ex­pelled from the Com­mu­nist Party, and will face jus­tice, ac­cord­ing to state news agen­cy Xin­hua. 26 Oc­to­ber: Bo Xilai is ex­pelled from par­lia­ment - re­mov­ing his im­mu­ni­ty from pros­e­cu­tion. 25 July 2013: Bo Xilai is charged with cor­rup­tion, bribery and abuse of power. 18 Au­gust: China sets Bo Xilai trial on 22 Au­gust 2013 at the In­ter­me­di­ate Peo­ple's Court in Jinan, Shan­dong province.