How the playboy antics of Chinese politician's Harrow-educated son have fuelled rumours of a coup in Beijing

By Simon Parry

Published: 19:38 EDT, 24 March 2012 | Updated: 09:58 EDT, 25 March 2012

China's leaders are facing their biggest political crisis for years as they struggle to quell rumours of an attempted coup in Beijing amid splits in the ruling elite.

Officials have cracked down on internet reports of soldiers in the streets and gunfire in the leaders’ secure compound near the Forbidden City.

Although the reports are unconfirmed, they have fuelled growing public unease over power struggles at the top of the Communist party’s politburo as it prepares for a once-in-a-decade handover of power later this year.

One of lads: Bo Guagua, 25, centre takes part in the kind of crude stunt with fellow students that is said to have heaped embarrassment upon his ambitious father

Speculation has been rife that the country’s interior minister Zhou Yongkang, said to be a rival of the outgoing premier Wen Jiabao, was arrested early last week following the rumoured coup, but on Friday state television broadcast pictures of him meeting a visiting politician.

Zhou, 69, is a close ally of anti-corruption official Bo Xilai, 62, who has not been seen in public since he was spectacularly ousted and denounced by Wen Jiabao at the annual party congress earlier this month.

The dismissal of the powerful Mr Bo – who had been tipped to be a minister in the new generation of leaders in the autumn – throws the whole succession issue into turmoil and has wrecked hopes of a smooth and orderly transfer of power.

It now appears that the playboy lifestyle of Mr Bo’s 24-year-old Harrow and Oxford-educated son Bo Guagua may have contributed to his downfall by stirring up resentment in China.

Bo Guagua, the most high-profile of a group of sons and daughters of Chinese leaders labelled the ‘princelings’ because of their hereditary wealth and hedonistic lifestyles, has a reputation for lavish spending.

Party boy: Bo Guagua embraces two young friends in a series of snaps posted on the internet

While studying philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, he was reportedly ‘rusticated’ –  or suspended – for failing to study hard enough.

He was described in one student magazine article as ‘terminally spending’ and was said to have a ‘strained relationship with books’.

According to contemporaries, he once organised a Silk Road Ball at Oxford, which included a kung fu display by Shaolin temple monks from China. And he impressed fellow students by arranging for movie star Jackie Chan to deliver a lecture, and even sang on stage with him.

One contemporary, who asked not to be named, said: ‘He was well known as a party boy. I remember in freshers’ week he bought an enormous amount of champagne for everyone and had a huge party in his room.

‘When he was rusticated, the Chinese ambassador came to Balliol with some Chinese secret service guys to say that it was embarrassing for his father. ‘He was rusticated at the end of his second year and college did not give him any teaching support after that.’

Pictures of a dishevelled Bo Guagua drinking and cavorting with women have been widely circulated on websites to the bemusement of the Chinese public and the irritation of its leaders.

Nine days ago, irritated by criticism of his son’s behaviour, Mr Bo insisted that he had no assets of his own and his son’s education in England – which began at the age of 12 at Papplewick preparatory school in Ascot, Berkshire – had been funded by full scholarships.

Pulling strings: Bo Guagua impressed fellow students by arranging for movie star Jackie Chan to deliver a lecture at Oxford

He was then removed as head of the local party in the city of Chongqing, in South-West China, after his security chief attempted to defect to the USA, saying he feared for his life after apparently ordering an investigation into corruption in Mr Bo’s family.

The whereabouts of Bo Xilai and his family remained a mystery yesterday with mounting speculation that he is under arrest or detention as party bosses consider bringing corruption charges against him.

At his family’s mansion in Chongqing, the door was reportedly being answered by a young guard in full military uniform who told callers to go away and said Bo and his family members were not available to speak.

Father: Bo Xilai has been sidelined by China's Communist Party

Bo Xilai – whose own father was a revolutionary hero and a friend of Chairman Mao – made his name by cracking down on gangs, preaching a return to egalitarian Communist principles, and by reviving the waving of red flags and the singing of Mao anthems.

But he was also known for his love of tailored suits and Jaguar cars – and while he was mayor of Dalian, in north east China, he had a remote control in his office that operated the fountain in the square outside and enabled him to choose the music that floated across the city through loudspeakers.

Opinion polls show the Chinese public – most of whom still live in grinding poverty – are increasingly opposed to conspicuous displays of wealth and resentful of the privileges given to officials’ children.

Significantly, current Chinese president Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao  worked their way up from humble backgrounds and share some of the public resentment towards China’s ‘princelings’.

Last year, Li Tianyi, the 15-year-old son of a senior Chinese army general, was sent to a detention centre for a year after being convicted of assaulting a couple in the street who blocked the path of the BMW he was driving.

In a notorious case in 2010, Li Qiming, the drunken son of a senior police officer in China’s Hebei province, ran over and killed a university student, then told onlookers before fleeing: ‘My father is Li Gang.’ The 22-year- old was arrested and jailed for  six years.

In Sydney, Zeng Wei, the 43-year-old son of the former Chinese vice-president, bought a £20 million mansion overlooking the Harbour, then lodged plans to demolish it.

And last week, the word Ferrari was banned from internet search engines across China amid rumours that the son of a senior Communist Party official had been killed in a high-speed car crash in the capital.

Two female passengers were  said to have been seriously injured when the Ferrari 458 split in two after crashing into a bridge at 4am last Sunday.

Beijing police refused to confirm the incident or the identity of the people involved Meanwhile, the sense of public nervousness over the power struggle within Beijing was reflected in an editorial in the nationalistic Global Times on Thursday which said: ‘The whole of China is waiting for the party to speak.

‘The faster we hear an authoritative voice, the clearer society can be and the public can feel more secure.’