A death, a downfall and a dark mystery
Is Briton’s death tied to the recent ousting of Chinese party boss?
BEIJING— Until a week ago, few Chinese had ever of heard of Neil Heywood, and fewer still raised any questions when the British business consultant was found dead in his hotel room.
Today, he is such a sensitive topic that China’s Internet censors have banned searches of his Chinese name, Hai Wu De. Through social websites and Hong Kong’s Chinese-language media, Heywood’s death in November in the southwest megacity of Chongqing is helping to fill a massive thirst for news created on March 15 when, with a single sentence, China’s official news agency announced that rising political star Bo Xilai had lost his job as Chongqing’s party boss.
Perhaps only the members of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee really know what led to Bo’s downfall. But fuelled in part by overseas media reports, there has been a storm of speculation that Heywood may have been bumped off by Bo, his family or his entourage.
Reuters reported Friday that the scandal shaking the Communist Party just as it readies for leadership change was triggered by claims from Bo’s former police chief that Bo’s wife was involved in Heywood’s death, citing a source with close ties to key individuals involved.
The source, citing accounts from an unfinished central investigation, said ex-chief Wang Lijun told Bo in late January that he believed Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, was involved in the death “because of economic interests.” The comments were corroborated by two other sources who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The source said it was unclear how much truth there was to Wang’s claim, but he said he had “no doubt” Wang had raised it with Bo.
The account helps explain the apparent rupture between the city chief and Wang, who led Bo’s widely applauded crackdown on crime in Chongqing.
In early February, Wang briefly sought refuge in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, which suddenly made the growing scandal public. Wang is now under investigation.
Heywood, 41, knew the Bo family from his time in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian, where Bo was mayor from 1993 to 2000. He was instrumental in Bo’s son attending Harrow, an exclusive private school in England.
Relatives of Heywood told Reuters in separate interviews that they did not suspect foul play in his death.
“It’s preposterous. The more description (in the media), the darker it becomes,” one said.
The British Embassy has asked the Chinese government to reinvestigate the death, attributed by Chongqing police to cardiac arrest due to overconsumption of alcohol. Heywood was not a heavy drinker, but was a chain smoker. His father also died of a heart attack at age 63, the relatives said.
Whether they’re true or not, the emerging accounts help explain why central Communist leaders decided to risk the aftershocks triggered by unseating Bo, 62, an excommerce minister known both for revolutionary-style populism and for his courting of multinationals.