Mao-era turmoil returns ahead of China's party leadership change

Change has come quickly to Chongqing, the sprawling city of 30 million people after the charismatic local party chief, Bo Xilai, was sacked last month by the national Communist Party leadership in one of the most-high profile political shake-ups in 20 years.

Singing of ''red songs'' an important component of Bo's effort to revitalise Mao-era values now stands banned. Advertising messages have taken the place of  messages on television. According to Bo's supporters, a number of old problems like the nuisance of unwanted leaflets or a bigger issue like prostitution - were creeping back.

However, the former Chongqing party chief's most ardent followers had not yet reconciled to his fate. Rather they are likely to challenge an unwritten rule that such high-level political decisions in China were beyond reproach by common people.

Meanwhile, even as the reason for Bo's firing remained unclear, it came at the beginning of a  sensitive year for the Chinese leadership.

More than half the country's 25 most-powerful figures are expected to retire during the once-in-a-decade transition and the sacking of of Bo is being compared to the deadly power politics in China during the reigns of Mao Zedong and his successor Deng Xio Ping.

The Chinese Communist party has various factions including the second generation 'princelings', PLA cadres and traditional leftists known as grey apparatchiks, among whom Bo is a populist wild card.