BO Xilai and the Briton

choi

(1) Jamil Anderlini, China Urged to Reopen Probe Into Briton's Death; Businessman had ties with purged Bo; Beijing expats view death as suspicious. Financial Times, Mar 27, 2012.

(a) Excerpt in the window of print: The case added a twist to the most gripping political drama to hit China for decades

(b) Quote:

(i) "Mr Wang [Lijun] has claimed that Mr Heywood was poisoned and that he was in a business dispute with Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai. Mr Wang has also claimed that he ran away and sought asylum after he informed Mr Bo of this discovery.

"But the Bo family spokesman, who asked not to be named, said Ms Gu was no longer involved in any kind of business, an assertion Mr Bo made at his last public press conference on Mar 9, and she jad not spoken with Mr Jeywood for 'a long time.'

"Mr Bo has not been seen in public since he was removed from his job and, according to two separate sources who said they had knowledge of the matter, he is being detained in the Communist party seaside summer retreat of Beidaihe.

Ms Gu and about a dozen associates are being detained in Beijing in the wake of Mr Bo's downfall. The Bo family representative would not comment on their whereabouts.

(ii) "He [Heywood] studied at Harrow between 1984 and 1988, the school Mr Bo's son Bo Guagua attended in the UK. He was 41 when he died, according to the Harrow Association.

"Bo Guagua met him in the UK and China and had met him for a drink last summer when they had planned to go sailing together, according to someone familiar with the matter.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) This is the only news report I have read that cites Bo family's narrative, however brief. The Bo family, like previous targets of purge, has had no voice, and, in my view, others "pour fifth on my family" with abandon (quoting Mr Bo in his last press conference).
(c) The FT report pinpoints Mr Heywood's age at 41, so does a NYT report (see next). In contrast, WSJ fails:
Jeremy Page, Mystery Deepens in Death of Briton in China. Wall Street Journal, Mar 27, 2012 (front page)
("People who knew Mr Heywood described him as a well-spoken man in his late 40s or early 50s")
  
(2) Michael Wines and Sharon LaFraniere, Britain Asks China to Investigate a Death Drawn Into a Scandal; Questions about a Briton and his ties to a purged leader. New York Times, Mar 27, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/2 ... death-in-china.html

Three consecutive paragraphs in web page 2:

"Rumors of a connection between the Wang scandal and Mr Heywood’s death first emerged in mid-February on China’s weibos, Twitter-like microblogs.

"According to people familiar with those allegations, a Chinese journalist who had been in contact with Mr. Wang received a mysterious text message on a cellphone that he had used to call the police chief. The message said Mr. Wang had been prevented from investigating Mr. Heywood’s death and had to seek refuge in the American Consulate.

"Hoping to discover who had sent the text message, the journalist posted it on a microblog. Censors later deleted it.

My comment: Though the NYT report is not insubstantial, I still think there is no need to read the rest.