Investigations of peripheral players usually build evidence of bribery that is then used against the main target, who is often seen as being singled out over political rivalries as much as for corruption. The party's anti-graft commission initiates most corruption investigations, using a secretive internal detention system in which suspects are interrogated without access to lawyers or family. Chinese President Xi Jinping would have had to overcome resistance within the party to publicize an investigation into someone as high-ranking as Zhou, which breaks with a long-standing taboo against targeting topmost leaders. Accused officials are usually stripped of party, government and legislative posts that give them immunity from prosecution as well as party membership, reducing them to the status of an ordinary person. Bo Xilai, the once-rising political star whose wife murdered a British business associate and who was himself accused of rampant bribe-taking, was first fired from his post as party chief of the megacity of Chongqing, with no reason given. Bo Xilai's trial was a surprising exception, stretching over five days, with his own testimony plus salacious details of a love triangle involving his wife and an ex-top aide available for public view through a regularly updated court blog.