Bo's former police chief to stand trial The former police chief at the heart of China's biggest political scandal in decades faces trial next week on charges of defection, taking bribes and illegal surveillance. Wang Lijun will be tried at the intermediate court in the south-western city of Chengdu on Tuesday. A court official said the trial was expected to last for one day. Mr Wang fled to the US consulate in Chengdu in February and stayed there for 24 hours, days after his dismissal as police chief of Chongqing, the nearby municipality then run by the ambitious politician Bo Xilai, who has since been deposed. Mr Bo had raised Mr Wang to prominence as a crime gang-buster. State media have indicated that Mr Wang had initially gone along with the attempted cover-up of the murder last November of the British businessman Neil Heywood by Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai. If convicted, Mr Wang could face a sentence of up to life in jail on the defection charge, and serious bribery charges can attract the death penalty. The announcement of the trial comes at a tense political time for China's ruling Communist party, which is preparing for a once-in-a-decade leadership succession that will see the retirement of President Hu Jintao at a congress in the coming weeks. It also comes as speculation swirls about the whereabouts of Xi Jinping, the vice-president expected to take over from Mr Hu, first as party leader and then as president early next year. Mr Xi has skipped meetings with foreign leaders over the past week, and Beijing has still not issued a statement directly responding to rumours about the 59-year-old's health. State media have not said whether Mr Wang, 52, intends to contest any of the charges. But China's party-controlled courts rarely find in favour of defendants, and the trial is likely to be held in strict secrecy. Mr Bo was sacked as Chongqing boss in March and Ms Gu was publicly accused of the murder in April. She received a suspended death sentence last month after confessing to the murder of Heywood. Mr Bo has been suspended from the party's politburo, but has yet to be formally expelled from it. Before his downfall, Mr Bo was widely seen as aiming for a spot in the next central leadership - using his charisma, vows of more equal growth and his crime-fighting record in Chongqing to build up a formidable public following. Sources have said that while Mr Wang was inside the US consulate, he told diplomats that he believed that Ms Gu was behind Heywood's murder following a business dispute. After he emerged from the consulate and was taken into custody, he is said to have repeated those allegations to Chinese investigators.