Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai among elite prisoners in China’s ‘tigers’ cage’ Qincheng growing vegetables and wearing suits

Former security chief Zhou Yongkang has a garden near his cell, while disgraced politician Bo Xilai doesn’t have to don his prison uniform, according to sources

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A policewoman tries to stop media from taking photos at the entrance to Qincheng prison. Many of the inmates at the maximum security jail are household names in China. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:03pm, 13 Jan 2019Updated: 5:44pm, 14 Jan 2019

Former security tsar Zhou Yongkang was once one of China’s most powerful men. Now, he grows fruit and vegetables inside the “tigers’ cage” – the infamous maximum security jail for fallen political elites.

Meanwhile, disgraced Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai and his former police chief Wang Lijun, who were at the centre of the country’s biggest political scandal in recent years, do not cross paths at the prison but apparently share the same hobby: calligraphy.

More than 1.3 million Chinese officials – from the elite “tigers” to the ordinary “flies” – have been snared since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and began an unprecedented graft-busting campaign.

And most of the “big tigers” like Zhou, Bo and Wang – officials with a vice-ministerial ranking or higher – are jailed at the secretive Qincheng prison.

While many of its inmates are household names in China, little is known about the conditions within the walls of the heavily guarded prison.