Gu Kailai, wife of powerful China politician Bo Xilai avoids execution, which surprises few

Gu Kailai stands in the Hefei City Intermediate Peoples Court in China's Anhui Province, Aug. 20, 2012.

/ AP

(CBS News) Gu Kailai, the wife of a man who had been one of the Chinese Communist Party's rising stars, stood in court Monday and declared her suspended death sentence for the murder of a British businessman, "fair," suggesting that it "reflects the court's special respect toward the law, reality and life."

Her remarks were almost certainly scripted by court authorities - or at least pre-approved by some government official - and her gratitude at seeing her life spared by the court may have been very real. But it came as little surprise.

Contrary to her remarks, many Chinese see her sentence as a blatant example of power continuing to trump justice in the country.

"I could have told you before the trial there would be no death penalty," Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Beijing's Renmin University tells CBS News. "It is not custom for the rich and powerful in China to get the death penalty. The family's connections go way back, generations."

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Gu's husband Bo Xilai had been, until his wife's arrest earlier this year for the murder of Neil Heywood, one of the most promising politicians in China, billed for a top position in the powerful Politburo Standing Committee later this year. His father was also a member of the Communist Party's elite.

"Although she said the verdict respects life, the death penalty does exist in China," notes Zhang, pointing to the infamous case of Xia Junfeng, a street vendor who is awaiting the death penalty for killing two local law officers after being arrested for illegal vending. His lawyers and family insist he was being beaten severely in custody when he used a knife to defend himself, killing the two men. An appeal of his sentence was rejected.

Chinese street vendor Xia Junfeng with his family, prior to his arrest in 2009.

/ Family photo

Xia, "killed two city administrators out of self defense but was given the death penalty rather swiftly," notes Zhang. "In contrast, Gu's crime is much more evil, but she only gets death with reprieve."

Well know Chinese columnist Lian Yue, who often weighs in on current affairs in the country to his massive following on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, suggested that Gu's crime, which was allegedly planned and executed by herself, with help from others, set the two cases apart.

"That street vendor might be guilty, but definitely not evil. He's a father, a husband. He sells snacks to feed the family," he said on Wiebo. "When vendors' rights - even their personal safety - is threatened, who's protecting them?"

Summing up the case, another user of the microblogging site said of Gu's sentence: "The trial indeed shows respect for life, her life. But what kind of people can enjoy such respect. Can Xia Junfeng enjoy that?"

This story was written by CBSNews.com foreign editor Tucker Reals, with reporting by Shuai Zhang in the CBS News Beijing bureau.

[jefforsythe]

The Chinese Communist Party is a brutal corrupt gangster regime that has murdered eighty million of its own people since 1949 and since 1999 has been attempting the genocide of tens of millions of innocent Falun Gong practitioners by the use of torture, slavery, organ harvesting and murder. Our governments and media say nothing about these heinous acts because of corporate greed. This is the truth about Red China, thank you.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

If China was truly communist, it would have disbanded its government a long time ago in favor of small tribes run by elders. Isn't that what Marxist communism calls for? Communism doesn't work either way -- because man is *not* good -- but it makes me angry when capitalists point to China or the former USSR when they try to condemn communism.

[doubleecho-2009]

Both comments above nailed it! This article "might" be designed to demonstrate the level of corruption in China, but the level of corruption here at home is probably the same if not worse!

[Mays2011]

United States is the kettle, and China is the pot? ok I got it now (shameful hypocrisy)

[gadfly65]

Where's the story here? Surely they don't mean to imply that China is somehow different form the other capital punishment superpower. When did the United States last execute anyone rich and famous? Have we ever?

[KnowerseekerReturns]

Good point.