Risks over Bo Xilai case could prompt China to seek low-profile resolution BEIJING - As they prepare for a once-in-a-generation turnover of power, China's leaders now appear to be seeking a quick and quiet resolution in the case of Bo Xilai, the top official ousted from his Communist Party posts, Western diplomats and Chinese analysts say. Rather than risk a sensational trial, the Chinese authorities appear most likely to simply expel him from the party, a step that could be taken swiftly and out of public view, the diplomats and analysts said. The approach would be intended to minimize public scrutiny of a Chinese system of graft and greed that Bo has come to symbolize. A foreign diplomat with access to some of China's senior leaders said he had been told that Bo's case would be handled soon, before the 18th Party Congress convenes this fall to settle on the country's new leadership team. Bo has been the target of wide-ranging corruption allegations since his wife, Gu Kailai, and a household aide were arrested on suspicion of murdering a British businessman, Neil Heywood. While Bo himself has not been accused in Heywood's death, his downfall has focused attention on questionable dealings involving one of China's most powerful families, including allegations that family members used their political connections to secure lucrative business deals and prime positions. In the past, the party has typically used corruption cases to bring down some of the most powerful, and prominent, officials, including former Beijing mayor Chen Xitong, who lost out in a power struggle and was jailed for embezzlement in 1995, and former Shanghai mayor Chen Liangyu, who was fired in 2006 and jailed two years later for misusing local pension funds. Chen Liangyu is believed to have fallen afoul of President Hu Jintao. Bo's elder brother, Bo Xiyong - who also goes by the name Li Xueming - served as a director and vice chairman of China Everbright International Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed alternative energy company, and reportedly earned millions in stock options before stepping down in April. A younger brother, Bo Xicheng, a director of several state-owned firms, has been involved in several lucrative investments in Dalian, where Bo Xilai served as mayor. And two of Gu's sisters are widely reported to have financial holdings worth more than $100 million through a web of business ventures stretching from Shenzhen to the British Virgin Islands. But the behavior of Bo and his family was quite typical for a high-ranking member of the ruling party's Politburo, analysts and others said. And prosecuting Bo for corruption would only expose the depth of the problem, and the flaws in the party's current system of policing itself. "The fact is, so many leaders are corrupt - it's a widely pervasive phenomenon," said Cheng Li, a scholar with the Brookings Institution in Washington and an expert on China's leadership. "The media - the Chinese and foreign media - will continue to go after corruption," Li said. The public will still talk about corruption. But for the party, he said, "The emphasis will be on the other, criminal things." He said Gu could still face corruption charges later, but not before the Party Congress.