Bo Guagua, Bo Xilai’s son, steps up to his father’s defense

July 31, 2016

By Talia Ralph

Sacked Chinese politician Bo Xilai, who battled organized crime in Chongqing.
Feng Li

Bo Guagua, the son of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, has stepped up to his father's defense.

Xilai has been expelled from the Communist party, and is set to face charges relating to his role in his wife Gu Kailai's murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. He was once slated to become part of the party's highest-ranking council.

His son, who has been studying at Harvard, issued a statement about hi father, saying that he was "upright in his beliefs and devoted to duty," BBC News reported.

"Personally, it is hard for me to believe the allegations that were announced against my father, because they contradict everything I have come to know about him throughout my life," Guagua wrote in a post on blogging site Tumblr. "He has always taught me to be my own person and to have concern for causes greater than ourselves. I have tried to follow his advice. At this point, I expect the legal process to follow its normal course, and I will await the result."

More from GlobalPost: What future for Bo Xilai, after Gu Kailai trial?

Reuters and other news sites have confirmed with Guagua that the statement was in fact posted by him.

Bo's son has not been a stranger to scandal, either: he has been criticized for his behavior while a student at Oxford, and photos of him shirtless flanked by women at a party were poorly received in China, where many Communists shun politicians' and their families for their lavish, high-profile lifestyles, CNN reported.

An article published on Saturday by Xinhua, China's official news agency, claims that “the Bo family accepted a huge amount of money and property from others” and that the senior Bo “had or maintained improper sexual relationships with a number of women.”

Gu Xilai was given a suspended death sentence for the murder of Heywood; Xilai was suspended from the Communist Party September 28.