To The Center

This year Chinese voters are hearing a murder mystery and watching a political scandal unfold, and so far it has brought down a big-name Chinese politician and his wife.

In a recent story from the Telegraph Neil Heywood appeared to be just a 41-year-old British businessman living in Beijing with his Chinese wife and two young children until November, 2011. Last year he died suddenly after being summoned to Chongqing where Bo Xilai had governed since 2007.

A previous story in TotheCenter.com, mentioned that before his death Heywood had called a close friend to say he was ‘in trouble’ after falling out with the leading Communist politician in China, Bo Xilai, and his wife Gu Kailai, the woman now accused of murdering Heywood. Heywood had ‘stashed financial secrets with lawyers as he became more fearful.

When Chinese police told two stories on the death, and had the body cremated, some eyebrows were raised. Consular staff were told Heywood died of alcohol poisoning; family said he died of a heart attack.

Foreign Secretary William Hague, addressing the British Parliament on Tuesday, referred to Neil Heywood’s death, according to NPR by saying: “We are pursuing this extremely carefully, but vigorously.” Hague had been asked if Neil Heywood was a spy, states another article from the Telegraph. Official sources stress Heywood was never employed by the British government. Many believe that his connections to important Chinese officials and prominent business firms maybe meant otherwise.

The Chinese government has said Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife, had developed financial and emotional ties with Heywood over the course of a decade, and she poisoned Heywood after a business deal went badly.

Elsewhere, the NY Times reports loyalists to Bo in critical Communist Party and government posts in Chongqing are being detained as part of the wide-ranging investigation into the entire scandal.