TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), the son of a former prominent member of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Politburo, Bo Xilai (薄熙来), arrived in Taiwan this week ahead of a planned marriage to a woman from Yilan.
Multiple media outlets reported that Bo visited the Lotung Poh-Ai Hospital in Luodong, Yilan on Friday (Nov. 15) at around 8 a.m. He had a health check and met with members of his fiancee’s family, who own the hospital.
Some plainclothes security guards and police officers were spotted around the hospital. Bo reportedly entered and exited via the underground parking lot, reported LTN.
Bo is reportedly planning to marry the granddaughter of Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政), an influential member of the Kuomintang (KMT) in Yilan, who passed away in 2019 at 95 years of age. Hsu was the founder of Lotung Poh-Ai Hospital and previously served as speaker of Yilan County Council in the 1970s.
Bo Guagua reportedly met Hsu’s granddaughter while the two were studying abroad in the US and maintained a long-distance relationship for many years. Following his marriage proposal, Bo arrived in Taiwan on Nov. 12 to meet the family and make arrangements for a wedding ceremony.
Bo Guagua is the son of Bo Xilai, who served on China’s Politburo and as the Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing from 2007 to 2012. After a scandal forced his resignation from leadership positions in the party, he was arrested in 2013 during one of Xi Jinping's (習近平) early anti-corruption purges.
There are theories that Bo Xilai was plotting an interparty coup to wrest leadership from Xi before his arrest. He is serving a life sentence in Beijing’s Qincheng Prison.
Bo Guagua’s mother, Gu Kailai (谷開來), was also targeted by authorities in China for her alleged involvement in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. She was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2012, but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2015.
While his parents were being prosecuted by the Chinese government, Bo Guagua was studying abroad in the US. After graduating from Harvard in 2012, Bo remained in the US and has reportedly not returned to China where both of his parents are still incarcerated, per UDN.
Details of the marriage plans and the couple’s future living arrangements are not being made public. Due to Bo’s family background, the Taiwan government views his presence in the country as a sensitive matter.