BEIJING (TIP): Disgraced former senior Chineseleader Bo Xilai is refusing to cooperate with agovernment investigation into him and has stagedhunger strikes in protest and at one point was treated inhospital, sources with knowledge of the matter said.Almost a year after Bo’s fall from grace under a cloudof lurid accusations about corruption, abuse of powerand murder, the government has given no definitivetime frame for when he will be tried or announcedformal charges against him.

Bo was ousted from his post as Communist Partychief in the southwestern city of Chongqing last yearfollowing his wife’s murder of a British businessman,Neil Heywood. Before that, Bo, 63, had been widelytipped to be promoted to the party’s elite inner core.Two independent sources with ties to the family saidBo’s trial was likely to be delayed until after an annualfull session of parliament and its top advisory body inMarch because he was not physically fit.

“He was on hunger strike twice and force fed,” onesource said. It was unclear how long the hunger strikelasted. “He was not tortured, but fell ill and was taken toa hospital in Beijing for treatment,” the source said.The stability-obsessed ruling party is determined toprevent anything, including Bo’s trial, from disruptingthe final steps of Vice President Xi Jinping’s ascent tobecoming top leader.