Subscribe
Subscribe Now to receive Goldsea updates!
- Subscribe for updates on Goldsea: Asian American Supersite
Bo Xilai Had Own Son Arrested to Shut Up First Wife
By wchung | 10 Jun, 2025
The latest Bo Xilai drama to emerge in the wake of his fall from the grace of the Communist Party leadership is his efforts at shutting up the first wife he divorced after meeting Gu Kailai.
One of Bo’s more heinous acts in his quest for power was ordering the arrest of Li Wanghe, his son by first wife Li Danyu, in the months leading up to the 18th National Congress in March. Bo was afraid that the vengeful Li may hurt his chances of being elevated to a post in the 9-person Politburo Standing Committee by her long-running campaign to discredit him. By having their son arrested, he hoped to shut her up.
Bo’s marriage to Li Danyu in 1976 baffled many because she was plain while he was debonair and the son of Bo Yibo, one of the nine “immortals” of the revolution. But Li had much to offer to Bo at that time. Bo Xilai, then nearing 30, was a worker at the Hardware Repair Workshop of Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau. His prospects appeared dim. Li Danyu was a doctor at the PLA General Hospital, and her father Li Xuefeng, was a former Beijing Party Secretary and an army comrade of Bo’s father Bo Yibo.
The marriage helped Bo get past his family’s struggles during the Cultural Revolution when his father became a victim of Mao Zedong’s campaign to return himself to the center of power by denouncing all rivals. Bo Yibo was labeled a “traitor, secret agent and historical counterrevolutionary” by the Gang of Four led by Mao’s notoriously vicious wife Jiang Qing.
Bo Xilai was a member of the Red Guards and was pressured to denounce his father only to find himself denounced along with his brothers and sisters. He was then imprisoned for five years for stealing. Upon release he was sent to the countryside, then to a factory. Through stoic patience and diligent work Bo earned the opportunity to return to school to finish the education interrupted when he was 17.
His marriage to Li Danyu produced a son, Bo Wanghe. When the Cultural Revolution ended Bo Yibo was rehabilitated and appointed vice premier. The restoration of the family’s status allowed Bo Xilai to enter Peking University, followed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. After graduation Bo was appointed to an official post in Jinxian near Dalian in Liaoning Province, while his wife Li Danyu stayed in Beijing to raise their son.
There Bo began an affair with Gu Kailai, whose older sister was married to Li Danyu’s older brother. Gu was a graduate student at Peking University and 11 years Bo’s junior. As the daughter of General Gu Jingsheng, former party second secretary of Xinjiang and political commissar of the Urumqi Military Region, Gu’s family status was even loftier than that of Li Danyu. She was also considered much prettier than Bo’s first wife.
Meanwhile Li learned of the affair and appealed to the People’s Supreme Court, the China Women’s Federation and other authorities in Beijing to put an end to it. She made a public issue of Bo’s conduct and character and vowed to avenge the betrayal. It took Bo four years and the intervention of his father to secure his divorce from Li Danyu so he could marry Gu Kailai.
Li Danyu then changed Bo Wanghe’s surname to Li. Her son worked hard to make his mother proud. He graduated from Peking University, then went to New York City to study at Columbia Law School. He returned to China in 2003 and became a banker and, later, an attorney.
Li Danyu refused to forget her grudge against her ex-husband. During the past ten years she was so dogged in seeking to destroy Bo’s reputation that one acquaintance described her as a bomb that has been tracking him for over ten years. She was so persistent in exhorting staff at the Supreme Court and the All-China Women’s Federation to seek pnishment for Bo and Gu that staffers soon learned to avoid her, according to reports that have appeared online.
“Every time I see Bo Guagua’s name, I’d think of my classmate Li Wangzhi, Bo’s oldest son,” wrote Tang Baiqiao, a democracy activist who became close friends with Li during their years at Columbia. “How could Bo’s two sons be so different? One is righteous and the other one is wicked. The exact opposite of each other.”
Bo’s fears that Li might actually succeed in derailing his rise to the Politburo Standing Committee during the 18th National Party Congress prompted him to order Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun to arrest his son on trumped-up charges of economic crimes. But what brought about the unraveling of Bo’s career and life was Wang’s fearful attempt at defecting to the US consulate in Chengdu.
No one is likely to be more satisfied by that turn of events than Bo’s ex-wife Li Danyu.
The latest Bo Xilai drama to emerge in the wake of his fall from the grace of the Communist Party leadership is his efforts at shutting up the first wife he divorced after meeting Gu Kailai.
Articles
Asian American Success Stories
- The 130 Most Inspiring Asian Americans of All Time
- 12 Most Brilliant Asian Americans
- Greatest Asian American War Heroes
- Asian American Digital Pioneers
- New Asian American Imagemakers
- Asian American Innovators
- The 20 Most Inspiring Asian Sports Stars
- 5 Most Daring Asian Americans
- Surprising Superstars
- TV’s Hottest Asians
- 100 Greatest Asian American Entrepreneurs
- Asian American Wonder Women
- Greatest Asian American Rags-to-Riches Stories
- Notable Asian American Professionals