BRITAIN HAS asked for authorities in Chongqing to investigate the mysterious death of a British businessman – based in the city – who claimed to have close links to the ousted former local Communist chief Bo Xilai.
Neil Heywood died in November in Chongqing and was quickly cremated. He reportedly died of alcohol poisoning, but suspicions have arisen since it emerged that he was an associate of the deposed Mr Bo, and had worked as a teacher to his son, Bo Guagua.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing that he had no information.
The investigation is the latest strand in a complex web of intrigue that has caused political turmoil in China, exacerbated by the lack of official comment on any details of the machinations at work.
Mr Bo’s purge has caused jitters ahead of a crucial leadership transition, which starts later this year, and has perhaps given a certain piquancy to the ongoing visit to China of Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Mr Bo (62) was a rising star in China’s opaque political firmament and looked a shoo-in for the party’s all-powerful Politburo standing committee when new members are named in the autumn.
The reasons why he was fired are not clear, although it could well be related to his campaign in the vast city-state of 32 million people to bring back a return to the values of the era of state founder Mao Zedong.
While the official formulation is that Mao was 30 per cent good and 70 per cent bad, the party he created remains in power today, although many of its leaders suffered terribly during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and Mao’s death in 1976.
Mr Bo’s nostalgic campaign was read by top figures in the party as an attack on the reformist wing of the party. In the days before his sacking and subsequent disappearance, prime minister Wen Jiabao warned against a return to the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and called for urgent reform.
Mr Bo also oversaw a crackdown on the Triad organised crime gangs in the city. The architect of that crackdown, Mr Bo’s long-time police chief Wang Lijun, effectively sealed his former boss’s downfall after he sought asylum in the US consulate in Chengdu, near Chongqing. Mr Wang has gone missing and not been seen since.
Since Mr Bo’s sacking, there have been widespread reports in official media about other officials, being detained. There were also more rumours after domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang briefly, but significantly, faded from view last week.
However, he later reappeared at a party training school event, calling for “greater efforts to improve political and legislative work so as to consolidate the party’s ruling status, maintain the country’s stability and prosperity and safeguard peoples’ livelihoods”.
The Wall Street Journal said Mr Wang had claimed to have fallen out with his erstwhile boss over the Heywood case, claiming he had been poisoned. It also alleged Bo Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai, had been involved in a business dispute with Mr Heywood.
