Bo Xilai denies bribery charges as trial in China opens The former senior Chinese official Bo Xilai has denied allegations of corruption levelled at him on the opening day of his trial, the most anticipated political trial in China in decades. Faced with charges of bribe-taking, embezzlement and abuse of power, Mr Bo argued strongly against the individual accusations of corruption in witness testimony presented to the court, according to transcripts published by the court in the eastern Chinese city of Jinan. At one point in the trial, Mr Bo was warned by the judge not to make personal remarks about witnesses after an apparent outburst in which he described video testimony from a former close comrade as "the ugliness of a man who has sold his soul." A photo from inside the court showed Mr Bo flanked by two taller policemen looking older than when he was last seen in public nearly 18 months ago. In testimony to the court released just before lunchtime, Mr Bo denied one specific charge of taking more than Rmb1m in bribes from Tang Xiaolin, a former workmate in a factory during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, who later became a successful businessman in Dalian while Mr Bo was in charge of the city. He told the court that while being interrogated he confessed "against his will" to taking the money from Mr Tang and in fact the bribery had never happened, according to a transcript released by the court. According to the Weibo account of the official Xinhua news agency, Mr Bo addressed the court and said: "I hope the judges can hear the trial in a reasonable and fair manner and follow [the] legal procedures of our country." This is the most significant political show trial in China since 1980, when Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, and the "Gang of Four" were tried for their role in the disastrous and bloody cultural revolution. On Thursday, the court said Mr Bo was accused of taking more than Rmb21m ($3.4m) in bribes from two companies between 2000 and 2012 either directly or through his wife or their son, Bo Guagua, who is living in the US and has enrolled at Columbia University Law School. In addition, he is accused of abuse of power in relation to the cover-up of his wife's murder of Mr Heywood and Mr Wang's flight to the US consulate. Outside the court, small groups of protesters gathered to show support for Mr Bo, who remains popular among some segments of Chinese society. Many of the people who gathered in crowds a block or two from the courthouse seemed eager to express their more general dissatisfaction, with some calling for the investigation of former premier Wen Jiabao and others loudly calling for the destruction of "American imperialism." Some in the crowd carried posters of Mao Zedong and shouted "long live Chairman Mao." Away from the courthouse, some Chinese political analysts were sceptical that Mr Bo's downfall would have any lasting significance. "Bo's trial will have no real effect on Chinese politics at all," said Mo Zhixu, a political commentator known for his liberal views. On the one hand [the Communist party] introduces market economics and globalisation in order to avoid total collapse like the Soviet Union while at the same time it uses all kinds of authoritarian methods to suppress any kind of social activism from different classes. Hand gesture creates buzz on social media What is in a hand gesture? For avid Chinese viewers watching a man who was once one of the country's most senior leaders hauled before a court to face corruption charges, quite a lot it seems, writes Julie Zhu in Hong Kong . In the first still photographs of Bo Xilai, the 64-year old former Communist party chief in Chongqing, at his trial on Thursday he appeared to be giving an "OK" gesture with his left hand, which created a major buzz on the Chinese blogosphere. It also triggered all kinds of theories about what the gesture could mean. In the image posted on the official micro blogfeed of the Jinan Intermediate People's Court, Mr Bo was seen with his hands crossed in front of him but with the three fingers on his left hand pointing down toward the desk crafting what looked like an "OK" sign. After being published at around 11am, the picture circulated quickly through retweets and comments on Sina Weibo, the country's most popular microblogging service. Microbloggers were busy figuring out what unspoken message Mr Bo was conveying by the gesture and to whom. "Three years, give him three years, he will be a hero again," wrote one admiring Weibo user referring to a possible sentence. "There is still 3bn [yuan] that he hasn't confessed to," wrote another user, less devoted to the man who was once touted as a member of the Chinese politburo. Some even jokingly commented that Mr Bo was seeking help by the gesture. According to one microblogger, the defendant was pleading for mercy from Jiang Zemin, the former president who still wields influence, because the gesture was a reference to "uphold The Three Represents," a socio-political ideology advanced by Mr Jiang in 2000. It could just as easily have been a sign to his family - at least those not in detention - that he is literally OK having not been seen in public for 18 months. Whatever it means Mr Bo's 3-finger gesture created a stir on Thursday. It is unlikely to be the only one in this trial.