U.K. Seeks Probe Into China Death

By JEREMY PAGE

BEIJING—The U.K. has asked the Chinese government to launch an investigation into the death of a British businessman who claimed to have close links to the family of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party leader whose downfall has thrown Chinese politics into turmoil.

The mysterious death of Neil Heywood in the Chinese city of Chongqing last year is emerging as a key element in the drama surrounding Mr. Bo, who was sacked as Chongqing's Communist Party chief this month.

Mr. Bo was brought down after his former police chief, Wang Lijun, triggered the political drama by seeking refuge from Mr. Bo in a U.S. consulate in the nearby city of Chengdu. Chinese police cars surrounded the building after he went inside on Feb. 6. After spending the night, he was taken away by Chinese security agents the following day and hasn't been seen since.

Mr. Wang claimed to have fallen out with Mr. Bo after discussing his belief with his boss that Mr. Heywood was poisoned, people familiar with the case said in interviews with The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Wang also claimed that Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was involved in a business dispute with Mr. Heywood, according to one of those people.

According to diplomats and other people familiar with the matter, Mr. Wang asked for political asylum in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and presented what he said was documentary evidence against Mr. Bo. He was rejected because U.S. officials feared accepting him would severely damage relations with China. He was persuaded to hand himself over to Chinese central-government officials who took him to Beijing.

Many questions remain in the case. At the least, Mr. Wang's allegation against his former boss raises the stakes in one of the most bitter and public power struggles within China's leadership since the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters around Tiananmen Square.

Mr. Bo, who led a controversial Maoist revival in Chongqing, was until recently considered a front-runner for promotion to the Party's Politburo Standing Committee—its top decision-making body—in a once-a-decade leadership change in the fall.

Efforts to contact Mr. Bo, his wife, Mr. Wang and Mr. Heywood's family were all unsuccessful. A spokesman for the British embassy in Beijing said the embassy is in touch with Mr. Heywood's relatives and they don't wish to comment.

Mr. Heywood was found dead in his Chongqing hotel room in November. Local authorities swiftly declared that he died of "excessive alcohol consumption," and cremated the body without an autopsy, according to people familiar with the case. Friends have since raised suspicions with the British embassy, pointing out that he was a teetotaler.

Ms. Gu, who is Mr. Bo's second wife, studied law and international politics and after graduation founded the Kailai law firm. She rose to prominence as a lawyer by handling several high-profile cases, and is believed to have been the first Chinese lawyer to win a civil case in the U.S. She also wrote several popular books, including "Winning a Case in the United States."

Mr. Bo told a news conference during the annual meeting of parliament this month—his last public appearance—that his wife had given up her legal career two decades ago so that it wouldn't appear that she profited from his position.

"She now basically just stays at home, doing some housework for me. I'm really touched by her sacrifice," he said.

The couple has a son, Guagua, who was educated at two private boarding schools in Britain, followed by Oxford University. He is now at Harvard University.

But the elder Mr. Bo's political career is now effectively over and his ultimate fate hangs in the balance as the Party's leadership debates how to handle a scandal that has disrupted the succession process by exposing the intense personal rivalries and deep ideological rifts within the political elite.

Mr. Heywood appeared to be working as an independent businessman and consultant, according to friends and acquaintances.

Mr. Heywood told several of them that he had close ties to the Bo family and could help to arrange meetings and business deals there. Several said he was connected to the Bo family through his Chinese wife, who was from the northeastern city of Dalian, where Mr. Bo was mayor from 1993 until 2001.

He also worked as a nonexecutive director of Beijing Martin, a local dealer for Aston Martin, the Britain-based automobile company. Aston Martin confirms that but said he wasn't directly employed by Aston Martin and hadn't been working for them in any way in Chongqing.

The British Embassy spokesman also said that, as far as he knew, Mr. Heywood hadn't been working for the British government in the recent past.

The spokesman said Mr. Heywood's family hadn't complained about how Chongqing authorities handled his death, and hadn't asked British officials to publicize or pursue the case further back in November.

"At the time we weren't aware of anything that called into question the coroner's report," the spokesman said. "There was no reason then to think there was anything suspicious about the death."

A U.S. Embassy spokesman declined to comment on whether Mr. Wang had raised Mr. Heywood's case during his stay in the consulate or whether U.S. officials had passed any information about it to British authorities.

The British Embassy spokesman declined to comment on private discussions with other governments, or to specify whether British authorities asked for the fresh investigation as a result of Mr. Wang's visit to the consulate.

He said that British officials asked Chinese authorities to re-examine the case "in the early part of this year" after suspicions about the case were brought to the Embassy's attention by members of the British community in China.

"We have raised this with Chinese authorities and urged them to investigate it fully," the spokesman said. "The response was that they would take it forward," he said, adding that Chinese officials hadn't made clear what action they would take, or when, regarding the Heywood case.

The scandal surrounding Mr. Bo has broad implications for China's future. Many of his supporters favor a stronger state role in the economy and society, while his opponents advocate a greater role for civil society, private enterprise and the rule of law.

While Mr. Bo's supporters in the leadership argue that he should be only mildly disciplined over Mr. Wang's actions and given a powerless but prestigious new job, opponents are thought to be pushing for more serious punishment, possibly based on Mr. Wang's allegations, according to people close to the party elite.

Unlike power struggles in previous years, this one is unfolding under the intense scrutiny of millions of Chinese Internet users, who have been trading rumors and speculation about possible scenarios over popular microblogging services.

In the past few days, they have been abuzz with rumors that domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, widely believed to be a close ally of Mr. Bo, was possibly also being purged from the Standing Committee.

Mr. Zhou largely disappeared from public view for part of last week and didn't attend an important party meeting in Shanghai on Thursday.

Attempts to reach Mr. Zhou were unsuccessful.

Mr. Zhou was one of several top leaders who visited Chongqing in the last two years and publicly praised Mr. Bo's high-profile crackdown against organized crime and his campaign to get residents to sing Maoist revolutionary songs.

Mr. Bo's supporters say he struck a chord with Chinese people in Chongqing and beyond whose faith in the Party was being eroded by growing income disparities and escalating corruption and crime.

Critics say he glossed over the horror of the Mao era, when millions of people died in a man-made famine and the political chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.