HEFEI, China (AP) - One of China's biggest murder trials in years starts Thursday but local residents have no idea that a courtroom in this grimy industrial city is about to become the center of China's political universe.
The talk in Hefei is more about China's Olympic medal tally than the drama surrounding Gu Kailai, accused of murdering a British businessman when her husband Bo Xilai ruled as Communist Party boss of Chongqing metropolis.
Gu's case is barely causing a ripple among ordinary Chinese, underscoring how far removed such political maneuvering is from their lives. That points to the government's success with censorship in the case, which has embarrassed the Communist Party ahead of its once-a-decade reshuffle of power later this year. Bo was a contender for a top job until his downfall.
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