UK Surprised, Heywood's Beijing Acquaintance: NYT

choi

Sharon LaFraniere, John F Burns and Jonathan Ansfield, China Scandal’s Latest Twist Revives Case of Dead Briton. New York Times, Apr 11, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/1 ... from-politburo.html

Quote:

"He [Wang Lijun] said Mr Heywood had been poisoned and revealed what he knew about the death — and about jockeying for power inside the country’s closed political system, several people briefed on the matter said. Although he handed over a treasure trove of intelligence, Mr. Wang was told he could not be granted asylum [web page 1]. * * * During more than 30 hours spent at the consulate, Mr Wang told officials that Ms. Gu had plotted to poison Mr Heywood, and turned over a police file with highly technical documents, according to people knowledgeable about the case. But Mr Wang, these people said, also apparently revealed far more: an unprecedented trove of knowledge on the leadership struggle [web page 2].

"Mr Heywood was an elusive business consultant who married a Chinese woman and carved a lucrative career in Beijing and Chongqing while keeping other British businessmen guessing about how he made much of his money, and he hinted of deep links to the Bo family.

"The announcement of an 'intentional homicide' appeared to surprise the British government, which had seemed anxious in recent weeks to distance itself from a major Chinese political scandal, saying that suspicions about the death they had passed to the Chinese were those of other Britons in China, not anything they could substantiate on their own. After an urgent huddle with other British officials, William Hague, the British foreign minister, told reporters in London: 'It’s a death that needs to be investigated, on its own terms and on its own merits, without political considerations. So I hope they will go about it in that way, and I welcome the fact that there will be an investigation.'

"According to one person who said he was briefly shown a copy of confidential information for party officials that was circulated on Tuesday, Mr Bo was faulted for failing to oversee underlings, a reference to Mr Wang, and mismanaging his family, a reference to the Heywood case, and flouting party procedures in those and other cases. Significantly, the party document did not suggest Mr Bo was a murder suspect, but rather implied he could have had a role in trying to cover up the killing by obstructing attempts to report the case and stripping Mr Wang’s police powers without party authorization. The murder investigation appears to be based on information provided by Mr Wang, who as the top police official in Chongqing was one of Mr Bo’s closest aides — until he sought refuge at the American consulate. Mr Wang is now being investigated for treason for that, according to Chinese sources familiar with the case, but is being credited with having come forward with evidence in Mr Heywood’s death.

"Before Mr Heywood’s death, Mr Bo and Mr Wang were already under scrutiny by central disciplinary authorities over corruption and other allegations, according to these sources, and to others with ties to senior party figures. If so, the evidence of a murder would have come as an opportune development in the inner-party struggle over the new leadership lineup.

"A man answering the door on Tuesday at the London home of Mr Heywood’s mother, Ann Margaret Heywood, said she was not available for comment. But 10 days earlier, she rejected any suggestion that her son might have been murdered, insisting that he had a heart attack, like his father at age 63. 'I don’t know where it comes from, this stuff about his being poisoned and so on,' she said. 'This is not about Neil, this is about Chinese politics, and people’s desire to write about Chinese politics. It is absolutely horrid to be caught up in this side of things.'

"Friends of Mr Heywood in Britain and China have said that his habit of giving little away about his business dealings left them with few clues as to what may have gone wrong in his dealings with Mr Bo’s wife, Ms Gu.

"A maverick who chain-smoked, drove a Jaguar and loved sailing with his wife and two children, Mr Heywood told friends he met Mr Bo in the northeastern city of Dalian, where Mr Bo served as mayor and in other posts from 1993 to 2004. He told a friend, a British journalist named Tom Reed, that he sent out letters of self-introduction to a flock of officials and that Mr Bo answered. There also Mr Heywood met Wang Lu, whom he married. * * * Mr Reed said in an interview that the exact nature of Mr Heywood’s relations with the Bos was always unclear. 'I didn’t get the impression it was anything commercial,' Mr Reed said. 'I got the impression it was much more informal.' He said that three nights before Mr Heywood’s death, they met for dinner in suburban Beijing. Mr Heywood said he had not seen Mr Bo for about a year because of a falling out, and that back then 'someone in Bo’s inner circle was talking against him because of fears of his influence over Bo.'  Mr Heywood acknowledged that at one point he had been concerned, and even considered leaving China with his family, Mr Reed said. But, Mr. Reed said: 'I got the impression that Bo had moved on, and Neil had moved on. He couldn’t have seemed less worried.'

My comment:
(a) The report says, "But Xinhua did not specify how Mr. Heywood died, or what business interests were involved. The only other suspect in his death, Zhang Xiaojun, was described as an 'orderly' working in Mr Bo’s home."

orderly (n; First Known Use 1781):
": a soldier assigned to perform various services (as carrying messages) for a superior officer
2: a hospital attendant who does routine or heavy work (as cleaning, carrying supplies, or moving patients)"
www.m-w.com

as far as I can tell, its use is always in the context of definition 2. I guess Xinhua uses it in the sense of definition 1.

(b) Quotation 6 cites Ms Ann Heywood, Neil's mother.
(i) I google but fail to find the source of Ann's statement. By convention, it should be Ann's statement to New York Times. Otherwise it is a serious infraction (considered plagiarism) if NYT uses it without attribution.
(ii) To the best of my recollection, the other Statement attributed to Ann is in the last five paragraphs of

Jason Lewis, Josie Ensor, and Malcolm Moore, Neil Heywood 'Feared for His Safety' As Strains Grew Around Bo Xilai, His Porful Chinese Friend. Sunday Telegraph, Apr 1, 2012.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ ... Chinese-friend.html