Bo Xilai to serve time in 'luxury' Qincheng Prison

[Anytime]

Bo Xilai to serve time in 'luxury' Qincheng Prison
Hsu Shang-li and Staff Reporter 2013-08-24 11:29

The entrance of Qincheng Prison in Beijing. (Internet photo)

Fallen Chongqing Communist Party chief Bo Xilai will be moved to the "luxury" Qincheng prison in Beijing, where he will serve his time in a single suite and will not have to wear a prison uniform, according to an article on forum.xinhuanet.com, the forum section of the state-run news agency Xinhua.

The prison was originally built to house Kuomintang war criminals, but now houses corrupt CPC officials, for example former Beijing secretary of the CPC municipal committee Chen Xitong and former Shanghai secretary of CPC municipal committee Chen Liangyu. In their capacity as former government officials, the convicts are not required to wear prison uniform and are allowed to read and exercise outdoors. Bo, who was the Chongqing secretary of the CPC municipal committee and a Politburo member, will be treated in the same manner.

On July 31, 1998, a Beijing high court sentenced Chen Xitong to 16 years in jail for bribery and negligence of duty. He was sent to Qincheng after his appeal was dismissed by the China Supreme People's Court. In 2004, Chen health began to deteriorate and was later granted medical parole in August 2006. The former Beijing politician succumbed to colon cancer in June this year at the age of 83.

Chen once said that the prison conditions at Qincheng were not that bad and though he was under surveillance for 24 hours, he was allowed to play chess and tennis.

Another former politician behind bars at Qincheng is Chen Liangyu. He was convicted for 18 years on April 11, 2008, on charges of bribery and abuse of power. Chen Liangyu currently resides in a 20-square meters suite inside the prison.

Qincheng prison is situated in Beijing's Changping district and is the only prison to be administrated by the country's Ministry of Public Security. All other prisons in China fall under the purview of the Ministry of Justice. Qincheng inmates are treated based on their ranking as government officials, while a chef from the 5-star Beijing Hotel cooks for the inmates, according to reports.

 

[Vermin]

Hotel-style prison awaits China's Bo Xilai: inmates
AFP September 23, 2013, 12:55 am

QINCHENG, China (AFP) - Fallen high-flyer Bo Xilai can expect hotel-style treatment at a jail for China's political elite, where he will enjoy comfortable surroundings but be constantly monitored by government agents, former prisoners say.

Hidden in wooded hills north of Beijing, guards stand outside the red gate of Qincheng prison, where the once-powerful Bo is widely expected to begin his life sentence after being convicted Sunday of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The jail has high grey walls, but there are no obvious signs of barbed wire or watchtowers.

"It's like a five-star hotel," said Bao Tong, a former secretary to the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee who spent seven years in the prison for opposing the 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Inmates at the facility -- which has housed almost all the high-ranking politicians jailed in China since the 1960s -- are given large private cells equipped with soft beds, sofas, desks and an en-suite bathroom, former residents said.

"I was pleasantly surprised the first time I saw my room," Dai Qing, the adopted daughter of a Chinese commander, wrote in a description to AFP.

Dai, who spent 10 months in the prison for supporting the Tiananmen demonstrators, described her cell as about 20 square metres large (215 square feet) and coming "with high ceilings... and even a bathroom", while prison guards treated her with "warmth and care".

"The head of the prison let me put on better clothes before I left," she recalled of one occasion when she was let out to visit a sick relative. "He reminded me of my old school headmaster."

Prisoners can choose their clothes, drink milk for breakfast and eat selections of soups and meat dishes for lunch and dinner, they said.

Some of the jail chefs used to work in one of Beijing's top hotels and prepare food to "ministry chief level", according to a recent report by the Beijing Times.

Information about the prison -- which does not appear on any Chinese maps -- is tightly controlled in China, but a trickle of reports have emerged.

The former Communist Party boss in Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, jailed for graft in 2008, wore a western-style suit and practiced tai chi while incarcerated, Hong Kong media said.

Qincheng was expanded in the last year, with an old wall removed to make room for "pavilions, trees and grass reminiscent of a Chinese garden", the respected financial magazine Caijing reported last month.

The descriptions present a stark contrast with ordinary Chinese jails, where inmates generally share cramped cells, eat basic food and are encouraged to work, sometimes manufacturing goods for export.

"Qincheng gives the best treatment of any prison in China," said Chen Zeming, an academic blamed by authorities for helping to organise the Tiananmen protests and who spent several months in the facility.

The "Gang of Four", a political faction including former leader Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, were sent to the prison following a high-profile trial in 1981. Prison authorities treated senior Party figures better than the Tiananmen activists, Chen said.

"Some prisoners were allowed outside to plant vegetables, later I realised one of them was Yao Wenyuan," he said, referring to one of the Gang of Four.

Built in the late 1950s with help from the Soviet Union, Qincheng is the only prison in China to be directly administered by state security, rather than judicial authorities.

"The prison is directly controlled by the Communist Party's central committee," Bao said. "The everyday situation of prisoners is reported directly to them."

Security officials stood outside his room at all hours noting his every change of position, Bao said, while Dai wrote of being constantly monitored.

Bo's status as the son of one of China's most famous revolutionary generals -- and his continued support among the party elite -- would ensure his comfort, the former inmates said.

"Bo Xilai won't be mistreated... he will have long periods to breathe the outside air and to communicate with others," said the academic Chen.

Bao added: "If Bo Xilai wants anything, and the central party agrees, then he will get it. If he wants to dance all day, and the party agrees, he can dance all day."

Top officials detained at Qincheng are often released on medical parole years before the end of their terms, according to reports never officially confirmed, and live out their days under house arrest.

"After two years, they will say (Bo) is ill and he will be released, and will live next to a lake," Bao predicted, "or by the sea".