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[Interesting] Bo Xilai's powerful lawyer wife and her role in his rise and fall
- Thread starter Rogue Trader
- Start date
How about me? Have I married the right woMAN?
She gave birth to 2 dragon princelings. Not a bad ROI
So are you.
Currently there are two fractions within China. The side that pro-communism (Authority, Plunging etc) , the other side that pro-socialist (welfare and capitalism). Bo Xilai is an extremist that promotes the Red Fraction more.
This case is started because London wants China to investigate Bo Xilai and not of any conspiracy. Only idiots like you read too much and pretend to know. You really think he is nitty clean?
Only a sinkie simpleton would think any politician is clean. Let me guess.. besides packaged tours, you've never been out of your sorry island?
I am a businessman in China now and would emigrate soon.
You didnt get your political fact correct when u quote me. Out of courtesy, I didnt quote u.
You invite flaming due to your ignorant and stupidity. What else do a sinkie like you know about China?
Really? Then I'm also an emigrant. I am now a card carrying CCP member and I like to log in to call singaporeans "dogs" for fun. Before that I was one of the student leaders during the TAM demo in 1989. If you search the photos, you will find me in one of them.
More dirt exposed!!
ASIA NEWS | Updated April 11, 2012, 10:16 p.m. ET
Fearful Final Hours for Briton in China
A boy plays at a Chongqing construction site by an ad saying 'Livable Chongqing,' a Bo Xilai slogan for the city, where he still has admirers.
The day before his death in the fog-shrouded Chinese city of Chongqing, Neil Heywood sensed that something was amiss.
The British businessman had been summoned on short notice to a meeting in Chongqing in early November with representatives of the family of Bo Xilai, the local Communist Party chief, according to an account by a friend whom Mr. Heywood contacted at the time. Mr. Heywood told the friend he was "in trouble."
After he flew to Chongqing, he tried to telephone his usual contacts but couldn't get through to any of them, according to the friend. He was left waiting alone in his hotel room for instructions.
Mr. Heywood felt he had reason to be nervous, although he had taken steps to protect himself. He had told the same friend earlier that he had left documents detailing the overseas investments of Mr. Bo's family with his lawyer in Britain as an "insurance policy" in case anything happened to him.
He had also told friends that he was concerned about his safety after falling out with Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, who he said knew about the documents and was convinced she had been betrayed by someone in the family's "inner circle" of friends and advisers.
The new details about what drew Mr. Heywood to Chongqing, how he spent some of his final hours, and his claim to possess the documents about the Bos' foreign business interests shed fresh light on his mysterious death in his hotel room. Chinese authorities on Tuesday characterized the death as an "intentional homicide."
The Chinese authorities said Mr. Bo, who was sacked as Chongqing party chief last month, had been stripped of his remaining party posts, and that his wife, Ms. Gu, was in custody as a suspect in the murder of Mr. Heywood. Beyond saying that Ms. Gu and her son had been close to Mr. Heywood and had fallen out with him over a financial matter, the authorities haven't provided details about Ms. Gu's suspected role in a case that has thrown elite Chinese politics into turmoil.
A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday the government had briefed the U.S. and British embassies in Beijing about the case.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he welcomed the probe. "It is very important we get to the truth of what happened in this very disturbing case, this very tragic case," he said.
Given Mr. Bo's political prominence and recent downfall, some experts on Chinese politics question whether an impartial investigation is likely. The initial allegations that Mr. Heywood may have been poisoned after a dispute with Ms. Gu, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, came from a former Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, who sought refuge in a U.S. consulate in the city of Chengdu in February.
The new details add to a growing body of evidence about the suspicious nature of Mr. Heywood's death that is independent of Mr. Wang's and the Chinese government's accounts.
Attempts to contact Mr. Bo and his wife directly and through intermediaries weren't successful. Mr. Heywood's mother, Ann, declined to comment or identify the lawyer to whom Mr. Heywood may have provided documents.
Mr. Heywood's accountant and several other friends said they had not heard him talk about a lawyer or leaving documents in Britain. Whether or not the documents Mr. Heywood claimed to have actually exist couldn't be determined.
Even if no such documents exist, his claim to possess them provides an insight into a man who had used his wit and charm to form an unusually close relationship with a senior Chinese leader, only to apparently find himself out of his depth in the world of elite Chinese politics.
Mr. Heywood came from a middle-class family and was educated at Harrow, a private boarding school, and Warwick University. After studying Chinese in Beijing, he moved to the northeastern city of Dalian, where Mr. Bo was mayor from 1993 to 2001.
Mr. Heywood told friends he had formed a relationship with Mr. Bo after writing him asking for help exploring business opportunities, and offering to help attract foreign investment to the city, which Mr. Bo was trying to transform into a fashion and information-technology hub.
Mr. Heywood married a Chinese woman from Dalian, Wang Lulu, and set up several companies, including one called Neil Heywood & Associates, some of which offered consulting services to foreign businesses trying to invest in Dalian and other parts of China.
At the time, Ms. Gu was doing similar work through a company called Horas Consultancy & Investment, according to people close to her, but there is no public evidence that she or her company had a business relationship with Mr. Heywood's companies.
Mr. Heywood became close to the Bo family after helping arrange for the couple's son to study in Britain. He began telling friends he was part of an "inner circle" of about a dozen people that included one other foreigner, French architect Patrick Henri Devillers.
British public records show that between 2000 and 2003, Mr. Devillers shared a residential address with Horus Kai—the name Ms. Gu used in her foreign business dealings—in the British seaside city of Bournemouth. Mr. Devillers couldn't be located for comment.
After Mr. Bo was appointed Commerce Minister and moved to Beijing in 2004, Mr. Heywood also moved to the Chinese capital and continued to work as a freelance consultant. He worked as an adviser to the Beijing dealership of Aston Martin, the British sports-car maker. He also did due-diligence work for companies including Hakluyt, a strategic business intelligence company founded by former members of the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, according to a spokesman for the company.
Friends say he played up the mysterious elements of his work in China. He wore cream-colored linen jackets, drove a Jaguar and took his family yachting off the coast of Dalian, according to two of his friends.
By 2007, when Mr. Bo was appointed Communist Party chief of Chongqing, Mr. Heywood told at least one friend he was sufficiently close to Mr. Bo to accompany him as he flew into the city to take up his new post. Several businessmen subsequently reported seeing Mr. Heywood in meetings between Mr. Bo and visiting foreign officials.
Ms. Gu had always been emotionally volatile, but she grew increasingly neurotic after she was subjected to a corruption investigation around 2007, Mr. Heywood told friends. People close to her said she suffered from depression in recent years.
At one point in about 2010, she asked members of her inner circle to divorce their wives and swear an oath of loyalty, according to one friend. Mr. Heywood refused, which angered her for a while, this person said.
Over the next year or so, Mr. Heywood grew increasingly nervous, warning some friends and business contacts not to discuss sensitive matters over email or by telephone. He began to smoke more, lost much of his hair and put on weight, according to several friends. One quoted Mr. Heywood saying he was under "intolerable pressure" from the Bo family. He told several friends he was planning to leave China next year.
His safety concerns appeared to shift based on how he was getting along with the family, friends say.
Tom Reed, a British journalist who has met him about four times over the past three years, said Mr. Heywood appeared happy when they dined together on Nov. 8, and didn't mention any plans to go to Chongqing. He said Mr. Heywood talked of a rift with Mr. Bo due to someone in the "inner circle" speaking badly of him, but gave the impression that his concerns about safety had passed.
Those concerns apparently flared anew when he was summoned to Chongqing and left alone in his hotel, according to the other friend's account. Mr. Heywood didn't tell that friend what the meeting was about.
What happened next in that hotel room remains a mystery. Neither British nor Chinese officials have disclosed the name of the hotel or the time when the body was discovered.
Local officials said at the time he had died from excessive alcohol consumption, and they quickly cremated his body without an autopsy, according to British officials. Mr. Heywood's family, however, was told he died of a heart attack.
ASIA NEWS | Updated April 11, 2012, 10:16 p.m. ET
Fearful Final Hours for Briton in China
A boy plays at a Chongqing construction site by an ad saying 'Livable Chongqing,' a Bo Xilai slogan for the city, where he still has admirers.
The day before his death in the fog-shrouded Chinese city of Chongqing, Neil Heywood sensed that something was amiss.
The British businessman had been summoned on short notice to a meeting in Chongqing in early November with representatives of the family of Bo Xilai, the local Communist Party chief, according to an account by a friend whom Mr. Heywood contacted at the time. Mr. Heywood told the friend he was "in trouble."
After he flew to Chongqing, he tried to telephone his usual contacts but couldn't get through to any of them, according to the friend. He was left waiting alone in his hotel room for instructions.
Mr. Heywood felt he had reason to be nervous, although he had taken steps to protect himself. He had told the same friend earlier that he had left documents detailing the overseas investments of Mr. Bo's family with his lawyer in Britain as an "insurance policy" in case anything happened to him.
He had also told friends that he was concerned about his safety after falling out with Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, who he said knew about the documents and was convinced she had been betrayed by someone in the family's "inner circle" of friends and advisers.
The new details about what drew Mr. Heywood to Chongqing, how he spent some of his final hours, and his claim to possess the documents about the Bos' foreign business interests shed fresh light on his mysterious death in his hotel room. Chinese authorities on Tuesday characterized the death as an "intentional homicide."
The Chinese authorities said Mr. Bo, who was sacked as Chongqing party chief last month, had been stripped of his remaining party posts, and that his wife, Ms. Gu, was in custody as a suspect in the murder of Mr. Heywood. Beyond saying that Ms. Gu and her son had been close to Mr. Heywood and had fallen out with him over a financial matter, the authorities haven't provided details about Ms. Gu's suspected role in a case that has thrown elite Chinese politics into turmoil.
A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday the government had briefed the U.S. and British embassies in Beijing about the case.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he welcomed the probe. "It is very important we get to the truth of what happened in this very disturbing case, this very tragic case," he said.
Given Mr. Bo's political prominence and recent downfall, some experts on Chinese politics question whether an impartial investigation is likely. The initial allegations that Mr. Heywood may have been poisoned after a dispute with Ms. Gu, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, came from a former Chongqing police chief, Wang Lijun, who sought refuge in a U.S. consulate in the city of Chengdu in February.
The new details add to a growing body of evidence about the suspicious nature of Mr. Heywood's death that is independent of Mr. Wang's and the Chinese government's accounts.
Attempts to contact Mr. Bo and his wife directly and through intermediaries weren't successful. Mr. Heywood's mother, Ann, declined to comment or identify the lawyer to whom Mr. Heywood may have provided documents.
Mr. Heywood's accountant and several other friends said they had not heard him talk about a lawyer or leaving documents in Britain. Whether or not the documents Mr. Heywood claimed to have actually exist couldn't be determined.
Even if no such documents exist, his claim to possess them provides an insight into a man who had used his wit and charm to form an unusually close relationship with a senior Chinese leader, only to apparently find himself out of his depth in the world of elite Chinese politics.
Mr. Heywood came from a middle-class family and was educated at Harrow, a private boarding school, and Warwick University. After studying Chinese in Beijing, he moved to the northeastern city of Dalian, where Mr. Bo was mayor from 1993 to 2001.
Mr. Heywood told friends he had formed a relationship with Mr. Bo after writing him asking for help exploring business opportunities, and offering to help attract foreign investment to the city, which Mr. Bo was trying to transform into a fashion and information-technology hub.
Mr. Heywood married a Chinese woman from Dalian, Wang Lulu, and set up several companies, including one called Neil Heywood & Associates, some of which offered consulting services to foreign businesses trying to invest in Dalian and other parts of China.
At the time, Ms. Gu was doing similar work through a company called Horas Consultancy & Investment, according to people close to her, but there is no public evidence that she or her company had a business relationship with Mr. Heywood's companies.
Mr. Heywood became close to the Bo family after helping arrange for the couple's son to study in Britain. He began telling friends he was part of an "inner circle" of about a dozen people that included one other foreigner, French architect Patrick Henri Devillers.
British public records show that between 2000 and 2003, Mr. Devillers shared a residential address with Horus Kai—the name Ms. Gu used in her foreign business dealings—in the British seaside city of Bournemouth. Mr. Devillers couldn't be located for comment.
After Mr. Bo was appointed Commerce Minister and moved to Beijing in 2004, Mr. Heywood also moved to the Chinese capital and continued to work as a freelance consultant. He worked as an adviser to the Beijing dealership of Aston Martin, the British sports-car maker. He also did due-diligence work for companies including Hakluyt, a strategic business intelligence company founded by former members of the British foreign intelligence service, MI6, according to a spokesman for the company.
Friends say he played up the mysterious elements of his work in China. He wore cream-colored linen jackets, drove a Jaguar and took his family yachting off the coast of Dalian, according to two of his friends.
By 2007, when Mr. Bo was appointed Communist Party chief of Chongqing, Mr. Heywood told at least one friend he was sufficiently close to Mr. Bo to accompany him as he flew into the city to take up his new post. Several businessmen subsequently reported seeing Mr. Heywood in meetings between Mr. Bo and visiting foreign officials.
Ms. Gu had always been emotionally volatile, but she grew increasingly neurotic after she was subjected to a corruption investigation around 2007, Mr. Heywood told friends. People close to her said she suffered from depression in recent years.
At one point in about 2010, she asked members of her inner circle to divorce their wives and swear an oath of loyalty, according to one friend. Mr. Heywood refused, which angered her for a while, this person said.
Over the next year or so, Mr. Heywood grew increasingly nervous, warning some friends and business contacts not to discuss sensitive matters over email or by telephone. He began to smoke more, lost much of his hair and put on weight, according to several friends. One quoted Mr. Heywood saying he was under "intolerable pressure" from the Bo family. He told several friends he was planning to leave China next year.
His safety concerns appeared to shift based on how he was getting along with the family, friends say.
Tom Reed, a British journalist who has met him about four times over the past three years, said Mr. Heywood appeared happy when they dined together on Nov. 8, and didn't mention any plans to go to Chongqing. He said Mr. Heywood talked of a rift with Mr. Bo due to someone in the "inner circle" speaking badly of him, but gave the impression that his concerns about safety had passed.
Those concerns apparently flared anew when he was summoned to Chongqing and left alone in his hotel, according to the other friend's account. Mr. Heywood didn't tell that friend what the meeting was about.
What happened next in that hotel room remains a mystery. Neither British nor Chinese officials have disclosed the name of the hotel or the time when the body was discovered.
Local officials said at the time he had died from excessive alcohol consumption, and they quickly cremated his body without an autopsy, according to British officials. Mr. Heywood's family, however, was told he died of a heart attack.
ASIA NEWS | Updated April 11, 2012, 7:31 p.m. ET
In City Bo Ruled, Residents Still Sing His Praises
By BRIAN SPEGELE in Chongqing and JOSH CHIN in Beijing
CHONGQING, China—In this industrial megacity where Bo Xilai was Communist Party chief until his ouster in March, many residents said they continue to support him after the announcement he is the target of a probe into "serious violations" and his wife, Gu Kailai, is a murder suspect.
The city of more than 30 million people continued to bustle on Wednesday, with no obvious signs of additional security, a day after authorities stripped Mr. Bo of his remaining party posts and named Ms. Gu as a suspect in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood.
"Red song" troupes—groups encouraged by Mr. Bo as part of a patriotism campaign that tapped songs and imagery from the Cultural Revolution—continued singing Communist revolutionary hymns on Wednesday, particularly in the city's downtown People's Square. Two dozen singers in two groups belted out "red" anthems—one woman claimed singing red songs was good for her health—even as they acknowledged the song competitions that had blossomed under Mr. Bo were likely finished.
Mr. Bo's supporters pointed to his efforts to promote affordable housing and plant more trees and beautify the city as well as his high-profile crackdown on organized crime, which they said had made the city significantly safer in recent years. Such initiatives first helped him rise to national prominence.
Some residents—most of whom declined to give their names—said they never heard of Mr. Heywood before Tuesday's announcement. Several residents said they felt that Mr. Bo's most serious crime was failing to control the actions of his family.
"In politics, the [Bo incident] is a huge political event," said one man, 68 years old, who gave his name as Mr. Wang. He, and others, said the common folks in the city had received very little information about the matter.
One third-year student at the city's Southwest University of Political Science and Law said, "If his family made mistakes, he still has to take responsibility."
Attempts to reach Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu directly and through intermediaries weren't successful.
Meanwhile, talk about the Chinese government's probes of Mr. Bo and his wife reverberated around China's Internet Wednesday despite strict censorship efforts, demonstrating a difficult task ahead for Communist Party officials seeking to restore an image of order and unity.
The Bo saga led the front pages of major newspapers on Wednesday, and an image of the newspapers laid out together was one of the most forwarded posts on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service on Wednesday.
Party officials called for unity both nationwide and in Chongqing. In a commentary for Thursday's edition, People's Daily, the party mouthpiece, said that "China is in a critical period of building a well-off society and deepening reform as well as speeding up transformation of the economic development pattern." It added, "To maintain reform, development and stability, the Chinese must unify their thinking and action in line with the central authority's decision."
The commentary built on similar language in a Wednesday editorial, which called for "firm support for the correct decision" and said Mr. Bo "seriously violated the party discipline, causing damage to the cause and the image of the party and state."
In a separate Xinhua article, Mr. Bo's successor in Chongqing, Zhang Dejiang, said local officials fully support the decision and "will spare no effort" to maintain stability.
"There is no privileged citizen before the law," it said, citing local officials. "No one can interfere with law enforcement, and anyone who violates the law cannot be at large."
Sina Weibo continued to block searches for the names of Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu on Wednesday, making it difficult to gauge precisely how many users were discussing the scandal, but a search for "serious violations of discipline"—the charge leveled against Mr. Bo—produced nearly 400,000 posts Wednesday afternoon, suggesting a robust conversation.
Some focused on Mr. Heywood's role in the drama, openly speculating as to whether Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu would have faced discipline had a foreigner not been involved.
"In the 19th century, the British came to China to trade and, because of a conflict over economic interests, a succession of horrible things happened and the Qing Dynasty was spent," one Weibo user wrote in a post highlighted on Offbeat China, a blog that tracks the Chinese Internet. "A hundred years later, a Briton has come to China again, and again a succession of horrible things has happened because of conflict over economic interests. What happens next, I don't dare imagine."
Others speculated on any potential meaning behind the way state media referred to Ms. Gu. She was referenced as Ms. Bo Gu, using both her husband's name and her own, which is different from the name she typically uses and is unusual in China. Searches for both versions of her name were blocked on Wednesday.
"It's just like the old saying 'beautiful women always bring trouble,' blaming all evil on women," historian Lei Yi wrote. "Actually, it wasn't Gu who made Bo into Bo, it was Bo who made Gu into Gu."
Wrote pundit Sima Nan, a vociferous critic of the U.S.: "The entire party listens to the center. This is imperative....But, as someone who may not be that smart but has the ability to think for himself, I honestly can't keep up with the development of this drama."
—William Kazer in Beijing contributed to this article.
In City Bo Ruled, Residents Still Sing His Praises
By BRIAN SPEGELE in Chongqing and JOSH CHIN in Beijing
CHONGQING, China—In this industrial megacity where Bo Xilai was Communist Party chief until his ouster in March, many residents said they continue to support him after the announcement he is the target of a probe into "serious violations" and his wife, Gu Kailai, is a murder suspect.
The city of more than 30 million people continued to bustle on Wednesday, with no obvious signs of additional security, a day after authorities stripped Mr. Bo of his remaining party posts and named Ms. Gu as a suspect in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood.
"Red song" troupes—groups encouraged by Mr. Bo as part of a patriotism campaign that tapped songs and imagery from the Cultural Revolution—continued singing Communist revolutionary hymns on Wednesday, particularly in the city's downtown People's Square. Two dozen singers in two groups belted out "red" anthems—one woman claimed singing red songs was good for her health—even as they acknowledged the song competitions that had blossomed under Mr. Bo were likely finished.
Mr. Bo's supporters pointed to his efforts to promote affordable housing and plant more trees and beautify the city as well as his high-profile crackdown on organized crime, which they said had made the city significantly safer in recent years. Such initiatives first helped him rise to national prominence.
Some residents—most of whom declined to give their names—said they never heard of Mr. Heywood before Tuesday's announcement. Several residents said they felt that Mr. Bo's most serious crime was failing to control the actions of his family.
"In politics, the [Bo incident] is a huge political event," said one man, 68 years old, who gave his name as Mr. Wang. He, and others, said the common folks in the city had received very little information about the matter.
One third-year student at the city's Southwest University of Political Science and Law said, "If his family made mistakes, he still has to take responsibility."
Attempts to reach Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu directly and through intermediaries weren't successful.
Meanwhile, talk about the Chinese government's probes of Mr. Bo and his wife reverberated around China's Internet Wednesday despite strict censorship efforts, demonstrating a difficult task ahead for Communist Party officials seeking to restore an image of order and unity.
The Bo saga led the front pages of major newspapers on Wednesday, and an image of the newspapers laid out together was one of the most forwarded posts on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service on Wednesday.
Party officials called for unity both nationwide and in Chongqing. In a commentary for Thursday's edition, People's Daily, the party mouthpiece, said that "China is in a critical period of building a well-off society and deepening reform as well as speeding up transformation of the economic development pattern." It added, "To maintain reform, development and stability, the Chinese must unify their thinking and action in line with the central authority's decision."
The commentary built on similar language in a Wednesday editorial, which called for "firm support for the correct decision" and said Mr. Bo "seriously violated the party discipline, causing damage to the cause and the image of the party and state."
In a separate Xinhua article, Mr. Bo's successor in Chongqing, Zhang Dejiang, said local officials fully support the decision and "will spare no effort" to maintain stability.
"There is no privileged citizen before the law," it said, citing local officials. "No one can interfere with law enforcement, and anyone who violates the law cannot be at large."
Sina Weibo continued to block searches for the names of Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu on Wednesday, making it difficult to gauge precisely how many users were discussing the scandal, but a search for "serious violations of discipline"—the charge leveled against Mr. Bo—produced nearly 400,000 posts Wednesday afternoon, suggesting a robust conversation.
Some focused on Mr. Heywood's role in the drama, openly speculating as to whether Mr. Bo and Ms. Gu would have faced discipline had a foreigner not been involved.
"In the 19th century, the British came to China to trade and, because of a conflict over economic interests, a succession of horrible things happened and the Qing Dynasty was spent," one Weibo user wrote in a post highlighted on Offbeat China, a blog that tracks the Chinese Internet. "A hundred years later, a Briton has come to China again, and again a succession of horrible things has happened because of conflict over economic interests. What happens next, I don't dare imagine."
Others speculated on any potential meaning behind the way state media referred to Ms. Gu. She was referenced as Ms. Bo Gu, using both her husband's name and her own, which is different from the name she typically uses and is unusual in China. Searches for both versions of her name were blocked on Wednesday.
"It's just like the old saying 'beautiful women always bring trouble,' blaming all evil on women," historian Lei Yi wrote. "Actually, it wasn't Gu who made Bo into Bo, it was Bo who made Gu into Gu."
Wrote pundit Sima Nan, a vociferous critic of the U.S.: "The entire party listens to the center. This is imperative....But, as someone who may not be that smart but has the ability to think for himself, I honestly can't keep up with the development of this drama."
—William Kazer in Beijing contributed to this article.
This is what the true picture will be. The triumphant return of Bo Xilai.
It happened to the late Teng Siau Ping and saw the imprisonment of Mdm Chiang Ching and the Gang of Four.
I appreciate the manner in which Bo Xilai stamped out the secret-societies.
China needs someone like Bo Xi Lai
Jiang Qing is not the wife of Mao Ze Dong?What connection does she has to do with Deng's refrigeration?
She is the wife of Chairman Mao.
Teng Siau Ping's economic policies were not in the good books of Mao and hence he was purged twice.
He attained prominence over Hua Guofeng in 1978.
That was how Jiang Qing was related to Teng's "refrigeration"
Thanks for the history lesson brother. But in modern politics, I doubt Bo Xi Lai can make a comeback. Unless he has a powerful backer in Beijing.
After Harvard, future is uncertain for Bo's son
Reuters
Saturday, Apr 14, 2012
CAMBRIDGE, Mass./BEIJING/LONDON - Bo Guagua, a 24-year-old descendant of Chinese Communist royalty, seemed destined to one day become a rich and powerful businessman in an economy that in his lifetime would become the world's largest.
His pedigree, elite schooling, easy confidence and connections left those who knew him in no doubt he would pursue a business career and amass a fortune.
That was until a British expatriate, Neil Heywood, died last November in a hotel in a huge city in western China, a world away from the clipped lawns and hushed libraries of Harvard University where Bo was studying.
The story now looks certain to ruin his family and upend his ambitions.
People are no longer sure of young Bo's fate: return to his family in China, seek asylum in the United States, or other options.
"Now he is an orphan," a source close to Bo's family said.
Late Friday, the UK Daily Telegraph reported that Bo Guagua, pulling a roller suitcase, slipped out of his apartment building late on Thursday night, in a pre-arranged pickup by law-enforcement officers.
Bo Guagua's mother, Gu Kailai, has been detained on suspicion of murdering Heywood, who for years had close ties to the Bo family.
His father, Bo Xilai, one of China's most charismatic and ambitious politicians, has been stripped of all his roles within the top echelons of the Chinese communist party.
The young man's family connections, which can be traced to his grandfather Bo Yibo, a revolutionary comrade of Mao Zedong, are now seen as poisonous rather than profitable in a country where personal relationships, or guanxi, are often the key to success.
Bo Guagua could not be contacted, and the status of his postgraduate career at Harvard, where he has been studying for a master's degree, is uncertain. University officials have declined to comment, citing their strict privacy policies.
Suspended from Oxford
Harvard classmates and others who know Bo from China and Oxford say he is not the quiet type: He likes socializing and has at times neglected his studies, much to his parents'displeasure.
He has also shown a fondness for luxury cars, once chauffeuring an American girl, the daughter of a diplomat, around Beijing in a Ferrari.
While at Balliol College, Oxford, from 2007, Bo Guagua gained a reputation as a party boy.
He was "rusticated" - effectively suspended - for 12 months for academic reasons, said a source familiar with his Oxford days.
Some Chinese diplomats even visited the university, northwest of London, to check on his progress, the source added.
Oxford University officials had no comment.
In an interview published in the Chinese press in 2009, Bo gushed about Oxford and revealed his secret for maintaining a strong mix of pleasure and study - to sleep only four to five hours a night.
He quoted an old Chinese saying, "A slow bird should make an early start."
In 2010, a year later than expected, Bo graduated with high marks in politics, philosophy, and economics.
One Oxford academic said Bo came across as having the kind of keen intelligence that would have enabled him to keep up his course work while finding plenty of time to have fun.
The academic recalled Bo as ambitious, sharp and argumentative.
Bo Guagua's name surfaces only sporadically in public accounts of Oxford student life, but what little there is shows drive and at times a sense of responsibility.
According to the independent Oxford student newspaper Cherwell, Bo was runner-up in the contest for Librarian - the de facto head - of the Oxford Union, an illustrious debating society that counts several British prime ministers among its former office holders.
He also once lead the PPE Society, another debating group, reflecting his interests in philosophy, politics and economic.
In 2008 the society was part of a joint effort to raise relief funds for those affected by a devastating earthquake in China's Sichuan province, which killed an estimated 68,000 people.
A smiling photograph on Bo's infrequently used public Facebook page shows him at Oxford, wearing a pink T-shirt.
The page lists his date of birth as December 17, 1987.
Soon to graduate?
Bo appears to have left a smaller footprint at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he has been studying public policy.
Part of the class of 2012 in the two-year program, he is due to graduate in May after final exams.
Bo's university directory page lists his work experience as a 2009 stint with China's Yichun County government and an internship with the Chinese Ministry of Education that same year.
Also during his Oxford years he is listed as founder of Beijing-based Guagua Internet Company (2009-2010), which appears to be defunct.
He has also been developing a social network, www.guagua.com, though it has yet to be launched, said a Chinese businessman who knows him well.
"He wants to make a billion dollars and be politically important," the businessman said.
Harvard spokesman Doug Gavel would not comment on how Bo Guagua was financing his expensive graduate studies - just the latest in more than a decade of study abroad.
Media reports suggest Bo Guagua's education has been bankrolled by a Chinese billionaire businessman.
His family has said he received scholarships to various institutions.
On its website, Harvard estimates that expenses for the upcoming academic year for international students at the Kennedy School would come to about US$70,000 (S$87,913), "based upon conservative estimates of living expenses."
Bo's lifestyle has seemed far removed from the austerity experienced by many graduate students.
A Harvard source said he believed Bo lived in "The Residences at Charles Square," an upscale condominium building near the school, though this could not be confirmed.
The building overlooks the Charles River and has views of downtown Boston.
A three-bedroom apartment there recently fetched US$1.8 million, while rents for two-bedroom apartments are around US$3,700 a month.
Student sources say Bo took an active role in organizing a 2011 "China Trek" for Kennedy students, where the contingent of graduate students met dignitaries such as Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Commerce Minister Chen Deming.
The trekkers visited Chongqing, where Bo Xilai was then head of the Communist Party, and were surprised to be greeted by a police motorcade.
"Everyone knew he was somebody important because of the meetings he arranged and also the long police escort. That was really surprising," a classmate said.
In the current academic year, Bo won a grant from the school's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation to work with fellow student Jennifer Choi on a project called"Transparency and Engagement Solutions for Nonprofits in China."
Choi, a candidate for a joint MBA/Kennedy School degree, is an intern in the fashion industry.
She did not respond to emailed questions.
In an email, Anthony Saich, director of the Ash Center and a professor of international affairs, deferred to university policy in declining to comment further.
On a typical Thursday, Bo would have been in Saich's class -"The Political Economy of Transition in China" - studying the country he has lived in only sporadically since leaving at age 12 to study at British boarding schools Papplewick and Harrow before going on to Oxford.
Fellow Harvard students say Bo has not been seen around lately.
At the end of March, Bo wrote the Times of London, asking the British media to leave him out of politics and let him focus on his studies.
"Regardless of the current state of affairs, I have only the hope that China continues on a path of smooth transition," the paper quoted him as saying in an email.
Reuters
Saturday, Apr 14, 2012
CAMBRIDGE, Mass./BEIJING/LONDON - Bo Guagua, a 24-year-old descendant of Chinese Communist royalty, seemed destined to one day become a rich and powerful businessman in an economy that in his lifetime would become the world's largest.
His pedigree, elite schooling, easy confidence and connections left those who knew him in no doubt he would pursue a business career and amass a fortune.
That was until a British expatriate, Neil Heywood, died last November in a hotel in a huge city in western China, a world away from the clipped lawns and hushed libraries of Harvard University where Bo was studying.
The story now looks certain to ruin his family and upend his ambitions.
People are no longer sure of young Bo's fate: return to his family in China, seek asylum in the United States, or other options.
"Now he is an orphan," a source close to Bo's family said.
Late Friday, the UK Daily Telegraph reported that Bo Guagua, pulling a roller suitcase, slipped out of his apartment building late on Thursday night, in a pre-arranged pickup by law-enforcement officers.
Bo Guagua's mother, Gu Kailai, has been detained on suspicion of murdering Heywood, who for years had close ties to the Bo family.
His father, Bo Xilai, one of China's most charismatic and ambitious politicians, has been stripped of all his roles within the top echelons of the Chinese communist party.
The young man's family connections, which can be traced to his grandfather Bo Yibo, a revolutionary comrade of Mao Zedong, are now seen as poisonous rather than profitable in a country where personal relationships, or guanxi, are often the key to success.
Bo Guagua could not be contacted, and the status of his postgraduate career at Harvard, where he has been studying for a master's degree, is uncertain. University officials have declined to comment, citing their strict privacy policies.
Suspended from Oxford
Harvard classmates and others who know Bo from China and Oxford say he is not the quiet type: He likes socializing and has at times neglected his studies, much to his parents'displeasure.
He has also shown a fondness for luxury cars, once chauffeuring an American girl, the daughter of a diplomat, around Beijing in a Ferrari.
While at Balliol College, Oxford, from 2007, Bo Guagua gained a reputation as a party boy.
He was "rusticated" - effectively suspended - for 12 months for academic reasons, said a source familiar with his Oxford days.
Some Chinese diplomats even visited the university, northwest of London, to check on his progress, the source added.
Oxford University officials had no comment.
In an interview published in the Chinese press in 2009, Bo gushed about Oxford and revealed his secret for maintaining a strong mix of pleasure and study - to sleep only four to five hours a night.
He quoted an old Chinese saying, "A slow bird should make an early start."
In 2010, a year later than expected, Bo graduated with high marks in politics, philosophy, and economics.
One Oxford academic said Bo came across as having the kind of keen intelligence that would have enabled him to keep up his course work while finding plenty of time to have fun.
The academic recalled Bo as ambitious, sharp and argumentative.
Bo Guagua's name surfaces only sporadically in public accounts of Oxford student life, but what little there is shows drive and at times a sense of responsibility.
According to the independent Oxford student newspaper Cherwell, Bo was runner-up in the contest for Librarian - the de facto head - of the Oxford Union, an illustrious debating society that counts several British prime ministers among its former office holders.
He also once lead the PPE Society, another debating group, reflecting his interests in philosophy, politics and economic.
In 2008 the society was part of a joint effort to raise relief funds for those affected by a devastating earthquake in China's Sichuan province, which killed an estimated 68,000 people.
A smiling photograph on Bo's infrequently used public Facebook page shows him at Oxford, wearing a pink T-shirt.
The page lists his date of birth as December 17, 1987.
Soon to graduate?
Bo appears to have left a smaller footprint at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he has been studying public policy.
Part of the class of 2012 in the two-year program, he is due to graduate in May after final exams.
Bo's university directory page lists his work experience as a 2009 stint with China's Yichun County government and an internship with the Chinese Ministry of Education that same year.
Also during his Oxford years he is listed as founder of Beijing-based Guagua Internet Company (2009-2010), which appears to be defunct.
He has also been developing a social network, www.guagua.com, though it has yet to be launched, said a Chinese businessman who knows him well.
"He wants to make a billion dollars and be politically important," the businessman said.
Harvard spokesman Doug Gavel would not comment on how Bo Guagua was financing his expensive graduate studies - just the latest in more than a decade of study abroad.
Media reports suggest Bo Guagua's education has been bankrolled by a Chinese billionaire businessman.
His family has said he received scholarships to various institutions.
On its website, Harvard estimates that expenses for the upcoming academic year for international students at the Kennedy School would come to about US$70,000 (S$87,913), "based upon conservative estimates of living expenses."
Bo's lifestyle has seemed far removed from the austerity experienced by many graduate students.
A Harvard source said he believed Bo lived in "The Residences at Charles Square," an upscale condominium building near the school, though this could not be confirmed.
The building overlooks the Charles River and has views of downtown Boston.
A three-bedroom apartment there recently fetched US$1.8 million, while rents for two-bedroom apartments are around US$3,700 a month.
Student sources say Bo took an active role in organizing a 2011 "China Trek" for Kennedy students, where the contingent of graduate students met dignitaries such as Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Commerce Minister Chen Deming.
The trekkers visited Chongqing, where Bo Xilai was then head of the Communist Party, and were surprised to be greeted by a police motorcade.
"Everyone knew he was somebody important because of the meetings he arranged and also the long police escort. That was really surprising," a classmate said.
In the current academic year, Bo won a grant from the school's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation to work with fellow student Jennifer Choi on a project called"Transparency and Engagement Solutions for Nonprofits in China."
Choi, a candidate for a joint MBA/Kennedy School degree, is an intern in the fashion industry.
She did not respond to emailed questions.
In an email, Anthony Saich, director of the Ash Center and a professor of international affairs, deferred to university policy in declining to comment further.
On a typical Thursday, Bo would have been in Saich's class -"The Political Economy of Transition in China" - studying the country he has lived in only sporadically since leaving at age 12 to study at British boarding schools Papplewick and Harrow before going on to Oxford.
Fellow Harvard students say Bo has not been seen around lately.
At the end of March, Bo wrote the Times of London, asking the British media to leave him out of politics and let him focus on his studies.
"Regardless of the current state of affairs, I have only the hope that China continues on a path of smooth transition," the paper quoted him as saying in an email.
Sounds like it's a case of 黑吃黑 gone awry .... 
Neil Heywood killed 'because he threatened to expose Gu Kailai's money trail'
Neil Heywood, the British businessman whose murder has sparked a political upheaval in China, was poisoned because he threatened to expose a plan by Bo Xilai's wife to move money abroad, it has been claimed.
9:41AM BST 16 Apr 2012
Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, allegedly asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.
She apparently accused him of being greedy and allegedly hatched a plan to kill him after he said he could expose her dealings, a source close to the police investigation told the Reuters news agency.
Two sources have spoken to investigators in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese city where Heywood was killed and where Mr Bo had cast himself as a crime-fighting Communist Party leader.
Gu is in police custody on suspicion of committing or arranging Heywood's murder, though no details of the motive or the crime itself have been publicly released, other than a general comment from Chinese state media that he was killed after a financial dispute.
The source claimed Heywood – formerly a close friend of Gu and who had been helping her with her overseas financial dealings – was killed after he threatened to expose what she was doing.
Neil Heywood killed 'because he threatened to expose Gu Kailai's money trail'
Neil Heywood, the British businessman whose murder has sparked a political upheaval in China, was poisoned because he threatened to expose a plan by Bo Xilai's wife to move money abroad, it has been claimed.
9:41AM BST 16 Apr 2012
Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, allegedly asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.
She apparently accused him of being greedy and allegedly hatched a plan to kill him after he said he could expose her dealings, a source close to the police investigation told the Reuters news agency.
Two sources have spoken to investigators in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese city where Heywood was killed and where Mr Bo had cast himself as a crime-fighting Communist Party leader.
Gu is in police custody on suspicion of committing or arranging Heywood's murder, though no details of the motive or the crime itself have been publicly released, other than a general comment from Chinese state media that he was killed after a financial dispute.
The source claimed Heywood – formerly a close friend of Gu and who had been helping her with her overseas financial dealings – was killed after he threatened to expose what she was doing.
Bro, there is no neccessity for a "backer" in Beijing anymore.
Those days are long gone.
China is currently undergoing a tremendous change in political attitudes by her people..
These are the people that will bring whoever they prefer to power.
Her people are different now compared to those from the days of Mao-tse-Tung
You may call it the Chinese Spring.
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