As facts trickle in surrounding the death of Neil Heywood, a British man whose death in China sparked a scandal, the WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to Beijing reporter Jeremy Page about who exactly the businessman who died in Chongqing was.
BEIJING—The British businessman whose death has emerged as a key element in China's biggest political scandal in two decades periodically consulted for a British strategic-intelligence firm founded by ex-spies, a spokesman said Monday.
Neil Heywood, who was found dead in a Chongqing hotel room in November, wasn't a full-time employee of the firm, Hakluyt & Co., and wasn't involved in projects in Chongqing, the spokesman said. The work was apparently one of several jobs Mr. Heywood held. The level of sensitivity of his projects wasn't clear.
The revelation adds a layer of intrigue to the scandal, which increasingly appears to mix the worlds of international diplomacy and corporate sleuthing with China's shadowy domestic security apparatus and opaque politics.
Mr. Heywood's death is one of the events in the drama surrounding the fall of the Communist Party chief in Chongqing, Bo Xilai, whose dismissal this month has thrown Chinese politics into turmoil.
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A U.K. businessman's death has added to mystery around Bo Xilai.
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Suspicions about Mr. Heywood's death were raised by Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief who triggered the political drama, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Mr. Wang, who sought refuge from Mr. Bo in the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, claimed to have fallen out with Mr. Bo after discussing with him his belief that Mr. Heywood was poisoned, according to people familiar with the matter. He also claimed Mr. Heywood had been involved in a business dispute involving Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, according to one of those people.
The British government said Sunday it had asked China's central government to investigate the case fully in light of fresh suspicions about Mr. Heywood's death, and that Chinese officials promised to "take it forward."
The new revelation about Mr. Heywood's work with Hakluyt suggests he might have been engaged in activities that are considered highly sensitive—and sometimes dangerous—in China.
Gathering business intelligence and investigating Chinese firms is a growing industry here, and inevitably those engaged in it often delve into issues of corruption, nepotism and vested bureaucratic interests.
News on Mr. Heywood and his connections to the Bo family has been eagerly devoured by a Chinese public that knows little about the personal lives of its top leaders. At the same time, there has been spreading disquiet as details in the Bo case add to the sense of a drama spinning beyond control. The nervousness is heightened by absence of news on the whereabouts of Mr. Bo and his family.
The addition of a foreigner—a well-mannered Englishman with a politically connected Chinese wife—to the Bo story has added spice to the rumor mill.
A company that used the services of a British businessman, whose death is a key element of a political scandal in China, operated in the secretive industry of business-intelligence. WSJ's Cassell Bryan-Low delves into the world of spies. Photo: Reuters
On Monday, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry and local Chongqing officials said they were unaware of the situation regarding Mr. Heywood. The lack of a clear, consistent line from official media and spokespeople in China usually indicates lower-level officials are waiting for the party leadership to make a collective decision about how to handle a given situation, according to political analysts.
A spokesman for Hakluyt said Mr. Heywood had been providing the company with services on a case-by-case basis for some time, without specifying exactly how long. Hakluyt was founded by former officers with the British intelligence service MI6.
A new twist emerges in the Bo Xilai drama as suspicions grow about the death last year of a British businessman in the city of Chongqing. The WSJ's Deborah Kan speaks to Beijing Bureau Chief Andy Browne.
"Neil had a long history of advising Western companies on China and we were among those who sought his advice," the spokesman said. "We're greatly saddened by his death." He declined to say what services Mr. Heywood provided. The firm offers business intelligence and advice as well as credit checks and other due-diligence services.
Several acquaintances and former colleagues of Mr. Heywood said they weren't aware of what exactly he had been doing in Chongqing in November. But people familiar with the case said his Chinese wife wasn't in Chongqing at the time, according to people familiar with the case.
People who knew Mr. Heywood described him as a well-spoken man in his late 40s or early 50s, often clad in a cream linen jacket and tie, who had lived in China for many years and was known in the business community as a part-time dealer of Aston Martin sports cars.
Timeline: The Chongqing Drama
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The mysterious death of Neil Heywood in Chongqing last year is emerging as a key element in the drama surrounding Bo Xilai, who was sacked as Chongqing's Communist Party chief this month.
They say that Mr. Heywood, a Mandarin speaker, also was known as a freelance consultant who could help to arrange meetings and solve business problems thanks in large part to a connection with the Bo family established through his wife, who was from the northeastern city of Dalian, where Mr. Bo was mayor from 1993 to 2001.
Two people who knew Mr. Heywood said they thought he had played a role in helping to look after Mr. Bo's son, Bo Guagua, when he was studying at two British private boarding schools—Papplewick and Harrow—and at Oxford University. Two others described him as a "low-level fixer" for the Bo family, suggesting he acted as a middleman for them, helping to arrange meetings with business figures and to advise them on dealing with foreigners.
Many analysts and people close to the party elite believe there is a split in the top leadership between those who support Mr. Bo and want him to remain on the party's Politburo—its top 25 leaders—and those who want him to be ejected and face official punishment.
According to diplomats and other people familiar with the matter, Mr. Wang, the former police chief, asked for political asylum in the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and presented what he said was documentary evidence involving 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.
It is impossible to substantiate Mr. Wang's allegations or to ascertain the reasons he decided to come forward, and people familiar with the matter said he may be acting in self-interest. Nonetheless, his claims could now be used by Mr. Bo's opponents against him and other leaders who support him.
Efforts to reach Mr. Bo, his wife, Mr. Wang and Mr. Heywood's family were unsuccessful.
Players in China's Leadership Purge
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Associated Press
In this Oct. 21, 2008, photo, then-Chongqing city police chief Wang Lijun held a press conference. Wang triggered the political drama by seeking refuge from Mr. Bo in a U.S. consulate in Chengdu.
Mr. Wang's case is raising interest in Congress, as leading lawmakers are seeking to find out if the Obama administration denied him political asylum.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) is requesting access to State Department communications concerning Mr. Wang's case. A spokesman for Mrs. Ros-Lehtinen said she has yet to receive a response.
The State Department said last month Mr. Wang left the Chengdu consulate under his "own volition." Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland Monday declined to comment further.
One key question in the evolving drama is what exactly Mr. Heywood was doing in Chongqing when he died, and what, if any, projects he had been working on there in the recent past. But several friends, acquaintances and former colleagues said they didn't know.
After he 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 matter. Friends have since raised suspicions with the British Embassy, pointing out that he didn't drink.
The website for HL Consulting, a Chinese consultancy that also specializes in credit and other due-diligence checks on Chinese companies, said Mr. Heywood had worked as a nonexecutive director for the firm's IPO advisory team.
The website described Mr. Heywood as a graduate of Beijing Language and Culture University, a "famous expert" on China's economy, a long-term specialist on large Western pension funds, who had played a role in several business ventures with foreign companies, including Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.'s takeover of Volvo. Volvo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
One person recalled Mr. Heywood introducing himself at a social event at the British Embassy in Beijing two years ago as an adviser to the city's Aston Martin dealership.
"He was clearly from a good family, in his late 40s or 50s, and was typical British, yet quite old school," the person said.
—Jay Solomon, Laurie Burkitt and Kersten Zhang contributed to this article.
Write to Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared Mar. 27, 2012, on page A1 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Mystery Deepens In Death OfBriton In China.
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