Charming the foreigners
As governor of Liaoning, Bo openly squabbled with Wen Shizhen, then-Party secretary of the province who was technically Bo’s boss, in another sign of his growing disdain for the established power structure and bureaucratic channels.
Then in 2004, Bo’s ambition, media savvy and flair for the dramatic were launched on to the global stage with his appointment as minister of commerce, a position that put him in charge of China’s strained trade relations with the West. In this role he conducted round after round of tortuous discussions with then-EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in the so-called “bra wars” over Chinese textile imports to Europe.
Lord Mandelson, known as the “prince of darkness” in the UK and considered ...
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