The formal charge of Madam Boku Kailai for pre-mediated murder of a foreign national is quite unprecedented, involving as it does a dynastic and charismatic family, the untimely death of a foreign national, and the alleged corruption and palace intrigue behind the scene. Click here for an article in the New York Times on 26 July, 2012.

There is, however, much more than meets the eye. First, some useful insight into the machinations beneath the surface may be gained by visiting my earlier anaysis "The curious case of Bo Xilai Part II"  Click here

The current formal charge of Madam Bo is the logical sequence of the following epiphany –

(a) The detailed and international investigations suggest a determination that the murder charge must be handled according to the due process of law.

(b) It also suggests that the murder (which is essentially connected with the inner strife of the Bo family) must not be allowed to be mixed with the more distabilizing case of Bo Xilai himself, who has been suspended of powerful party positions pending the completion of party disciplinary investigations.

(c) The Chinese Communist Party is waking up to a systemic challenge from within to its long-term stability. This strengthens its resolve to root out disruptive, "usurptive" elements and to reform and transform the Party into a "ruling party" that must win not only the purse but the hearts and minds of the masses through better governance delivered by a competitive meritocracy. The movement is perhaps towards a model not entirely unlike that of Singapore, where the same Party has been firmly in power since its independence.

Bo Xilai's political departure is leaving a limited vacuum which needs to be filled by competing party rising stars. This is now taxing the Chinese leadership.

There is a fair chance that the number of top leaders in the Politburo Standing Committee will be reduced from nine to seven, conveniently removing the hard-line disruptive forces within the state's highest decision making-body. This is likely to pave the way for a swathe of social and political reforms expected in the course of the coming leadership, as heralded in the 468-page joint report of the World Bank and the State Council's Development Research Centre "China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society". Click here

"Historically, the number of members on the standing committee has ranged from five to 11 at different times. The view is that the more members there are on the committee, the more interest groups there will be which could impede future reforms. Seven members therefore is seen as the optimum number for preserving the group decision-making process in the most efficient manner. The places on the standing committee currently occupied by the party's propaganda chief and the head of the political and legal commission are the two likely be removed", according to an article in WantChina Times, a Taiwanese online news outfit on 17 July, 2012. Click here

All will become much clearer when the new leadership (the Standing Committee of the Politburo) is finally unveiled in the autumn.

This is but one of the many facets of a vast country in rapid transition with massive growth of a more educated and economically more independent middle class at the heart of a globalized, inter-connected and inter-dependent world.  What works in the past may not continue to work in the future and Change is the only constant.

However, what is reasonably certain is that, warts and all, China is most unlikely to download the Western model of confrontational party democracy where increasingly cracks are appearing to reveal that the masses are often short-changed to suit the vested interest of the 1% elite.