Blood ties rule China: an interactive map revealing the ruling elite’s relationships

Wall Street Journal has created a wonderful interactive map that traces five generations of  blood ties of China’s ruling elite.

The interactive map accompanies WSJ’s article by Jeremy Page, Children of the Revolution, explains the emergence of “Princelings,”

The offspring of party leaders, often called “princelings,” are becoming more conspicuous, through both their expanding business interests and their evident appetite for luxury, at a time when public anger is rising over reports of official corruption and abuse of power.

A common conversation among Chinese people is the recklessness of children of wealthy government officials, otherwise known as,  富二代. The article points out that even The People’s Daily acknowledged the problem in a poll last year with over 91% of respondents agreeing that wealthy families have political connections.

Soon after the WSJ article was published, a Chinese new site, 看中国, posted an article based off of the details provided by the WSJ article. The Chinese article highlighted the expensive lifestyle of Bo Xilai’s (薄熙来) son, Bo GuaGau (薄瓜瓜).  Bo Guagua went to some of the most expensive elite private schools in the UK, Papplewick and Harrow. He is now studying at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government:

2000年，时任大连市长的薄熙来，把他12岁的儿子送到英国名叫“Papplewick”的预科学校。根据该校网站，每年学费22425英镑（约3万5千美元）。

一年后，薄瓜瓜成为中国大陆加入Harrow的第一人。Harrow是英国最高档的私立学校，根据该校网站信息，现在每年学费30930英镑。

2006年，薄熙来时任商务部部长，薄瓜瓜去了英国牛津大学学习哲学、政治和经济。该校现在的花费是每年26000英镑。他现在就学的哈佛肯尼迪政府学院每年花费约7万美元。

*thank you to Chris Chang for referring me to 看中国 version of the WSJ article.