Supporter of China's Bo Xilai says she set up political party of more than dozen people

BEIJING – A supporter of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai says she has set up a new political party with around a dozen people and named the imprisoned former official its chairman.

Wang Zheng, a Beijing lecturer, says the party was established last Wednesday. Wang refused to provide more details Sunday about the party's membership.

She says only that it had "more members than the number of people who attended the Communist Party's first congress after it was established." Twelve deputies attended the Communist Party's first congress in Shanghai in 1921.

Bo, the former party boss in Chongqing, was convicted in September of embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power and sentenced to life in prison. His social policies earned him a limited popularity mostly among the region's farmers and low-paid workers.