Bo Xilai's close aide kept list of officials' 'dirty secrets'

A former police chief and close aide of jailed Communist Party leader Bo Xilai, allegedly kept a dossier of government officials' "dirty secrets" to blackmail them, according to a magazine published by the ruling party.
"Wang Lijun, Bo's former lieutenant, was an expert in manipulating people by finding out their dirty secrets and using the information for blackmail if necessary," said a police officer interviewed by the magazine that is brought out by the Communist Party of China's anti-corruption body.
The officer, in turn, was quoting a local officer who once worked under Wang, former police chief of Chongqing city.

The latest issue of China Discipline Inspection, published monthly by the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection, gave details of graft inspectors' search for leads and how they dodged steps taken by suspects to thwart their probes.
Wang broke away from Bo, creating a sensation by defecting to the US Consulate in Chengdu fearing reprisals following investigations into the latter's wife Gu Kailai in a murder case. He was imprisoned to 15 years for corruption and embezzlement.
While Bo is serving a life sentence, his wife has been given a suspended death sentence.

Narrating Wang's tactics, the local officer gave the example of Lei Zhengfu, a disgraced Chongqing district official who was sacked after a sex tape recorded by Lei's mistress in 2007 appeared online in 2012.

Wang knew of Lei's improprieties long before they were made public, but pretended not to know about them so that he could blackmail Lei at more opportune time, the South China Morning Post said.
The officer also said that at social gatherings like dinners, Wang would often point to a particular person, in front of everyone present, and say "you know that I know all about you. I'm telling you, you have to cooperate with me".
The report also shed light on obstacles investigators faced with suspects from the public security agencies. It took "courage and wisdom", for example, to investigate former Tianjin public security bureau chief Wu Changshun.

"We feared that our phones were tapped. In meetings, we turned on the radio to create interference to prevent eavesdropping," an investigator said.
Investigators also ran into trouble with informants who had information about Wu. First-hand evidence against Wu was crucial to the investigation, but informants were terrified of being caught by him.
One informant travelled to Beijing from Tianjin to avoid Wu's detection. On arrival at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection compound, he took a deep breath and said that he had changed his licence place three times. Wu was expelled from the party in February.