• City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy

    The murder of an English business man and corruption scandal, involving one of the China's most powerful men, has gripped the country. NBC's Ian Williams reports.

    By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

    CHONGQING, China – Everywhere you go in Chongqing, you can see traces of the complicated legacy of Bo Xilai, the former Communist party chief who ran this municipality of 30 million people until scandal derailed him. 

    At one time destined for a top post in China’s highest echelon of power, the standing committee of the politburo of the Communist Party, Bo aggressively poured money into this municipality in pursuit of his populist agenda.

    To drive through the windy roads that snake around this hilly metropolis is to see a city in constant transformation. Towers of low-income housing complexes dot the skyline. These social housing projects were meant to address a major national issue: the lack of affordable housing, and provided homes that cost just a few hundred dollars a year to rent. And Bo had gingko trees, said to be one of his favorites, planted across the city.

    But these city improvements came at a cost: His heavy investment in capital construction projects forced the city to borrow so much money to pay for it that Chongqing owes $20 billion to the China Development Bank, according to a news report on Wednesday. The tree planting saddled the city with a $1.5 billion bill just for 2010 alone.  

    The improvements weren’t the only controversial aspect of Bo’s reign over this important gateway city to the western half of China, and since his demise his critics have stepped out of the shadows to talk about the darker side of life in what had become the former leader’s personal fiefdom.

    Told a Bo joke, got a year in a labor camp

    In Chongqing, NBC News spoke with Fang Hong, a 51-year-old former forestry officer who made news earlier this week when he filed an appeal with a local court seeking compensation for what he alleged was an unfair sentence he served at a labor camp.

    According to Fang, he was imprisoned for posting a two-line joke about Bo on his microblog that quickly went viral. Soon after, Fang said he was dragged in by police for questioning and later brought before a police tribunal where he was sentenced for “fabricating facts and disturbing public order.” 

    Fang served his sentence at a labor camp where he said he was forced to assemble thousands of Christmas ornaments for export for one year.

    Released earlier this year, Fang was emboldened by the criticism that has shrouded Bo following his high-profile falling out with his vice-mayor and former police chief, Wang Lijun, who famously sought refuge at the American embassy in Chengdu. That move by Wang sparked an international political scandal that now includes a murder mystery. Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, is a murder suspect in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood; Bo has been officially disowned by the ruling Communist Party and has disappeared from public view.

    Ed Flanagan / NBC News

    A crowd gathers around Fang Hong in Chongqing to hear his story on Tuesday.

    Boisterous debate on Bo
    Fang agreed to do an interview with NBC News on an outside promenade with commanding views of Chongqing’s skyline and the mighty Yangtze River below. Fang spoke confidently, eager to tell his story about the deprivations he faced while interned at the labor camp.

    Between the presence of a foreign camera crew and his loud denouncements of Bo Xilai, Fang quickly drew a crowd of onlookers.

    The first indication that things were going to get contentious with the crowd was when one short, middle-aged man standing next to the camera started muttering under his breath as he listened to Fang. 

    Taking jagged drags from his cigarette and nervously flicking ash between puffs, the man’s voice rose incrementally to voice his protestations of Fang’s opinion about Bo. Those near to the man shushed him as they strained to hear what Fang was saying, but after one particular statement, the man clearly had enough.

    “That’s bull---! Bo Xilai has done so much for Chongqing!” bellowed the man as he waved his cigarette at Fang.

    The crowd erupted into a loud, boisterous debate on Bo, prompting NBC News correspondent Ian Williams to wrap up the interview so that Fang could quickly leave with his lawyers.

    But before he left, Fang feistily told the man what he thought of his opinion, triggering a shouting match. One of Fang’s lawyers and some of the crowd had to separate the pair.

    David Lom / NBC News

    Angry pro-Bo Xilai supporter voices his opinion to the crowd in Chongqing.

    ‘Since Bo Xilai took power I feel more secure'
    Not everyone had negative feelings about the disgraced former party chief.

     One older woman in the crowd said:, “Before, I was worried to wear earrings because I was worried I’d get robbed, but since Bo Xilai I feel more secure seeing more police on the streets.”

    Finally, a line of security guards rolled up and broke up the crowd. The guards were not forceful and they exchanged a few knowing nods with the throng of people who were loudly voicing their support for Bo.

    Bo’s fall has clearly given his critics the opportunity they’ve long desired to voice their criticisms of him.

    However, despite the accusations that paint Bo’s Chongqing was something akin to a modern-day Tammany Hall, the populism and perhaps most importantly, the pride he instilled in this mega-city suggest his popular legacy may last far longer than Communist Party officials would like.

    As one driver told us, “Yeah, Bo might have been corrupt, but at least he did something for us – which is more than those corrupt officials who do nothing at all.”   

    NBC News’ Bo Gu contributed to this report.


  • James Murdoch: Subordinates' 'assurances' on phone hacking 'proved to be wrong'

    James Murdoch was back at the Leveson inquiry, where he claimed he didn't know about phone-hacking at News Corp's U.K. unit,  and didn't remember being told about it. ITV's Juliet Bremner reports.

    By msnbc.com news services

    LONDON - James Murdoch defended his record at the head of his father's scandal-tarred British newspaper unit before a U.K. inquiry Tuesday, saying that subordinates prevented him from making a clean sweep at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid. 

    Speaking under oath at Lord Justice Brian Leveson's inquiry into media ethics, Murdoch repeated allegations that the tabloid's then-editor Colin Myler and the company's former in-house lawyer Tom Crone misled him about the scale of illegal behavior at the newspaper. 

    Leveson asked Murdoch: "Can you think of a reason why Mr. Myler or Mr. Crone should keep this information from you? Was your relationship with them such that they may think: 'Well we needn't bother him with that' or 'We better keep it from it because he'll ask to cut out the cancer'?" 

    "That must be it," Murdoch said. "I would say: 'Cut out the cancer,' and there was some desire to not do that." 

    The 39-year-old Murdoch said that at the time he had no reason to doubt his subordinates when he took over at News International, which published the News of the World, saying he had repeatedly been told that nothing was amiss. 

    "I was given assurances by them, which proved to be wrong," he said. 

    Revelations that reporters at the News of the World had hacked into the phones of hundreds of high-profile people, including a teenage murder victim, pushed Murdoch's father Rupert to close the 168-year-old newspaper, triggered three U.K. police investigations, led to more than 100 lawsuits, and launched Leveson's inquiry into media practices. 

    James Murdoch has found himself sucked into the center of scandal, with critics saying that he should have found out about the wrongdoing once he took over at News International in December 2007. 

    Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images

    A protestor wearing a mask depicting James Murdoch demonstrates outside London's High Court during his testimony.

    The uproar over illegal behavior at the News of the World has already scuttled Murdoch's multi-billion dollar bid for full control of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. He resigned from his post as chairman earlier this month "to avoid being a lightning rod," he said. 

    Murdoch's relationship with politicians also came under scrutiny. 

    The American-born News Corp. executive revealed that he'd told Conservative leader David Cameron that The Sun newspaper would endorse the Tories' election bid at a meeting at the George club in London on Sept. 10, 2009. 

    The top-selling paper's endorsement was a blow to Britain's Labour Party — and critics claim that it helped secure Tory approval for the potentially lucrative BSkyB bid after they won the election in 2010. 

    Murdoch denied the charge Tuesday. 

    "I would never have made that kind of a crass calculation," Murdoch said. "It just wouldn't occur to me." 

    Murdoch acknowledged talking to Cameron about it at a Christmas dinner in 2010 — after the Tory leader had been elected prime minister — but said it was "a tiny side conversation ahead of a dinner." 

    Judge slams Murdoch's Sky News for illegal email hacking

    "It wasn't really a discussion, if you will," Murdoch said. 

    Cameron, who won power two years ago, has been forced to play down his contacts with the Murdochs and with Rebecca Brooks, a neighbor and frequent guest at his home in the countryside.

    Rupert Murdoch, who is still chairman and chief executive of News International's parent company News Corp., is scheduled to appear before the inquiry on Wednesday. 

    U.S.-based News Corp, owner of Fox Television and the Wall Street Journal, was thwarted in its ambition last year to buy the 61 percent of BSkyB, a major British pay-TV provider, that it did not already own. Amid the fire storm of scandal at the News of the World, it withdrew the bid.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Thai election takes a beastly turn

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Rival parties have complained to the electoral commission that portraying politicians as animals is undemocratic. The slogan translates as: "Don't Let the Animals into Parliament."

    By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent

    BANGKOK - It's election time in Thailand and a forest of posters has been planted along the capital's roads.

    The voters of Bangkok spend a good chunk of their time stuck in horrendous traffic, so the 26 competing parties see this as a pretty effective way of getting their message across to a captive audience.

    Among the most colorful are a series of placards featuring animals including buffaloes, monkeys, dogs and lizards, all wearing suits. They feature a large caption in Thai, which translates as "Don't Let the Animals into Parliament".

    The nationalist party behind these posters is urging voters to reject all the candidates and tick a "vote no" box on their ballot papers.

    Other parties have complained to the electoral commission that portraying politicians as animals is undemocratic.

    Offensive to animals?
    But perhaps the most heartfelt complaints have come from Thailand's vets. A seminar of the Thai Veterinary Medical Association last weekend suggested that the posters areoffensive to animals. "'Beastly' posters vex vets," was the Bangkok Post's headline.

    Nantarika Chansue of Chulalongkorn University's veterinary science department pointed out that dogs and lizards are incapable of lying, which could not be said of certain parliamentary mammals.

    Among the clutter of posters, the others that really stand out are those of Chuvit Kamolvisit, who leads one of the smaller parties.

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Chuvit Kamolvisit's angry posters urge voters to let him fight corruption.

    Chuvit was once knows as the "massage parlor king", as he owned a series of these notorious establishments, the biggest of which are almost industrial-scale brothels. He has re-invented himself as a crusader against corruption, exposing the cart-loads of cash (and payments in kind) he used to make to police and politicians to keep his sex businesses running smoothly. Chuvit appears angry in his election posters, which urge the public to let him fight corruption.

    The posters of the two front runners, Abhisit Vejjajiva's Democrat Party and Yingluck Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party, are by comparison, well, rather dull.

    Abhisit led the most recent and rather lackluster government. Yingluck is the youngest sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a military coup in 2006. From self-imposed exile in Dubai he remains the force behind the party, though his sister has brought a fresh face and some excitement to the campaign. With just over two weeks until the July 3 election, most polls show her in the lead, and there is much talk of Yingluck becoming the country's first female prime minister.

    If, that is, the army allows her.

    Deadly military crackdown
    The military remains the most powerful beast in the Thai political jungle. Not only did they kick Thaksin out in 2006, but since then they've worked hard behind the scenes to undermine his supporters and keep them out of power. Last year's military crackdown against red-shirted protesters, who support Thaksin, resulted in the deaths of more than 90 people.

    If the army were to interfere this time, though, the anger against them might be far greater than in the past.

    The election posters may offer clues of this. 

    During previous election campaigns, many candidates have been pictured wearing their crisp military-style uniforms. Most government servants (and a good many others in official and semi-official positions) have these. They are common sight at official gatherings, replete with medals for various achievements in public service.

    But not this time, not in the current crop of placards.

    Thai friends say this might reflect a desire by candidates to distance themselves from the coup-culture, and the popular suspicion of the military.

    Something for the top-brass to reflect on next time they find themselves stuck in traffic.

  • When will Japan's political musical chairs stop?

    By Arata Yamamoto, NBC News Producer

    TOKYO – In the latest round of musical chairs in Japanese politics, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who had been regarded as the next possible successor to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, resigned from his post on Monday after revelations surfaced during last week's parliamentary session that he had accepted political donations from a foreign national.

    Under Japanese election campaign law, politicians are prohibited from receiving contributions from foreign entities, including businesses and individuals in order to safeguard domestic politics from external influences.

    In the case of Maehara, the contributions came from a 72-year-old South Korean woman who runs a Korean barbecue restaurant in Kyoto city.

    She has known the family since Maehara and his mother moved to the same neighborhood when he was in junior high school and since then, regarded him as her son and supported his career from his days as a young aspiring politician.

    According to Maehara, he was not aware of the donations until it was raised last Friday by the opposition party. After subsequent investigations by his office, he revealed that she made five separate contributions between 2005 and 2010, each amounting to 50,000 yen, or roughly $600.

    The woman has told the Japanese press, had she known it was illegal for a "zainichi" (a Japanese acronym for foreigners with permanent resident status who chose not to become naturalized Japanese citizens) to make these contributions, she would have never done so.

    Maehara explained his resignation: "Regardless of the amount, or the fact that I was not aware of these facts, as a politician appointed to serve as foreign minister, and the fact that I had received political contributions from a foreign national, it is something which cannot be taken lightly."

    Ironically, in 2007, similar reports were revealed about former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, of the current main opposition Liberal Democratic Party. His political organization received contributions amounting to200, 000 yen ($2,400) from a pachinko owner with ethnic ties to North Korea. In Fukuda's case the issue was dropped because of a three year statute of limitation and also because his office was not aware of the contributor's ethnic background.

    But perhaps more importantly, with the constant threats by the opposition which currently controls the upper house to vote down key budget bills and the repeated calls for snap elections getting louder every time a scandal hits the ruling Democratic Party, Maehara admitted: "We simply couldn't allow the issue of my political contribution to halt parliamentary sessions.”

    Constant turnover
    Prime Minister Kan has already lost two ministers to opposition pressure since taking office nine months ago. The Transport Minister for failing to handle the now famous incident involving a Chinese fishing boat ramming into Japanese coastguard vessels and the Justice Minister for a gaffe he made during a fundraiser.

    The political scrimmages have taken a toll on the parliamentary debates which are imperative to pass key measures that are badly needed to shape the future of the country, but also it wasn't lost on Maehara, how Japan's political turmoil is increasingly being perceived overseas.

    Maehara who has always insisted on the importance of long term office-holding, shared a story from the U.N. General Assembly last September, how a foreign minister from another country came up to him to say he was his sixth counterpart from Japan.

    "It is truly regrettable that it has come to this and that I have personally brought on something that has hurt our national interest. But in principle, positions such as the prime minister and foreign minister must be carried out long term,” he said.

    The last prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama's stint as the leader of the country only lasted for nine months after resigning over a series of faulty reporting on political contributions.  Now the incessant political disarray has local journalists and pundits guessing on a daily basis how much time Kan has left for his tenure, which only makes you wonder when this game of musical chair will finally end.

  • Musharraf: A blast from Pakistan’s past or a glimpse at its future?

    Reuters / Toby Melville

    Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf addresses members of Britain's Pakistani community at the New Bingley Hall, in Birmingham on October 2.

    BY Carol Grisanti, NBC News Producer

    LONDON – Pledging to bring change to Pakistan’s widely discredited political establishment, the country’s former army strongman has vowed to run for president in the 2013 general election.

    “I want to be elected through a democratic process,” General Pervez Musharraf, who swept away a democratically elected but corruption-riddled civilian government in a 1999 coup, told a couple hundred cheering supporters at a posh private club in London on Friday.

    While few Pakistanis ever believed that their former president would do what old generals are supposed to do and “just fade away,” Musharraf has seized a moment of intense political turmoil to launch his political comeback from exile.

    ‘Human beings make mistakes’
    Musharraf, relaxed and sartorially elegant in finely cut gray wool suit, admitted to errors during his rule, especially in his ninth and last year as the country’s military dictator. (He fired the chief justice of the Supreme Court, suspended the constitution and declared a state of emergency, among other things.)

    “Human beings make mistakes,” the 67-year-old said. “I take this opportunity to apologize.”

    It was a powerful moment. This was the first Pakistani leader ever to admit faults in his leadership and then tell the nation he was sorry.

    Playing to the one million Pakistanis living in Britain and the even more millions listening back home, Musharraf said he learned his lessons and was ready to lead again.

    He vowed to bring Pakistan away from its feudal culture, referring to the beleaguered government of Asif Ali Zardari, the current president and widower of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He also promised that his new political party, The All Pakistan Muslim League, would unite all Pakistanis regardless of sect, religion or tribe.

    Now may be the right time for Musharraf’s re-emergence.

    His charisma complimented by his innate military bearing may help convince many of his fellow Pakistanis that he is the man to bring change. Many are unhappy with a spiralling Islamic insurgency, a collapsing economy, and the government’s handling of the worst floods in the country’s history.

    “Musharraf is trying to capture the present mindset among Pakistanis, especially among the younger people,” said Humayun Gauhar, a prominent political and military analyst. “The younger generation craves a new political system, they want to break away from the feudal class and the ruling elite who behave like they own the county.”

    Popular on Facebook
    The former general does have a narrow base of political support back in Pakistan and is popular on Facebook, where many of his hundreds of thousands of followers are under 30 years old. Still, an election win would be difficult.

    During his party’s official debut, Musharraf spoke in Urdu for an hour and then for another hour in English. He warned of the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor in his country and said Pakistanis are also frustrated by the country’s rapid economic decline.

    But many Pakistanis blame Musharraf for the countless problems the country faces today.

    An overwhelming majority in the country are anti-American and accuse him of selling out to president George W. Bush after the Sept 11 attacks in 2001, when he allied Pakistan with the U.S. war on terror.

    That alliance propelled the fiercely independent Pashtun tribes in the northwest of the country to join forces with the Taliban and al-Qaida to fight the U.S. and the Pakistani government. The tribes felt betrayed – they still regard the Afghan war along their borders as America’s war against the Pashtuns.

    In London, the former commando defended his stance against the militants and insisted that unless Pakistan remained part of the war against extremism “that fight cannot succeed.” In his party’s manifesto, he declared a “zero tolerance for terrorism.”

    But Musharraf’s critics accuse him of playing a double game while in power – banning some militant groups while turning a blind eye toward those who served the army’s interests against archrival India.

    ‘Chance to fill a vacuum’
    Pakistani author and journalist, Zahid Hussain, said he had been skeptical about Musharraf’s political launch until he heard him speak.

    “I think he could have a chance to fill a vacuum in the country,” Hussain said. “He might be able to mobilize a large section of the population, including the business community, who are completely fed up with the present system. I am not saying he can do it, I’m saying he might have a chance to do it.”

    If some were contemplating that perhaps times weren’t so bad after all under Musharraf, back home TV channels devoted hours of airtime to leaders of opposition parties and pundits who gave him no chance at all.

    Not that many are giving the present government much of a chance of finishing its full 5-year term, either. In fact, most Pakistanis feel things have never been worse, but few know how to fix the country’s entrenched problems.

    Requesting anonymity, a close aide of Pakistan’s military chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, said his boss has definitely ruled out a military coup. The main opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, does not have the numbers in parliament to call for a vote of no confidence against the government.

    That leaves the Supreme Court.

    The judges are angling for a showdown with President Zardari, perhaps this month, to remove the immunity he enjoys as the country’s president and restore old corruption cases against him. In that case, Zardari is expected to dig in his heels and fight back.

    In the more than 60 years since the British partitioned the Indian subcontinent and Pakistan became a separate state, the contenders for the country’s top job – always recycled among a Bhutto, a Sharif or an army general – have thrived on the urgency and the uproar of the moment to rise phoenix-like from the ashes.

    If Musharraf does attempt a return, he too would risk arrest for treason or deportation – reminiscent of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif when they tried to re-launch their political comebacks from London.

    Then there are the dangers of assassination from the militants he tried to eliminate when he was in office. Musharraf said he is not deterred.

    “I am not afraid,” he declared.

    Such is the way of Pakistani politics.

    NBC’s Fakhar Rehman contributed reporting from Islamabad.