Neil Heywood

Neil Heywood (20 October 1970 – 14 November 2011) was an English businessman who worked in China.

He was associated with Bo Xilai (the former Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary for Chongqing, and a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party).

Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing, and initial official reports (which have subsequently been challenged) attributed his death to alcohol poisoning.

Media reports have suggested the former chief of police under Bo, Wang Lijun, may have had information concerning Heywood's death.

Born in 1970, Heywood attended Harrow School, an independent school for boys.

He graduated in international relations from the University of Warwick.

Fluent in Chinese, Heywood spent more than a decade in China.

He was married to Wang Lulu (王露露), a Chinese national from Dalian, and the couple had two children; a boy named George, and a daughter, Olivia, who were ages 7 and 11, respectively, at the time of his death.

Both children attend the Beijing branch of Dulwich College.

The family lived in a private, tree-lined neighbourhood of villas on the outskirts of Beijing.

Heywood drove a Jaguar S-Type, with a Union Jack bumper sticker.

Heywood served as an intermediary, linking Western companies wishing to do business in China to powerful figures in the Chinese political structure.

Heywood ran a company named Heywood Boddington Associates, registered to his mother's house in London.

In its filings, it claims to be a "multi-discipline consultancy focusing on serving the interests of UK businesses in the People's Republic of China".

Heywood developed a business relationship with Gu Kailai, a lawyer, businesswoman, and the wife of Bo Xilai.

Both Gu and Bo are children of once-prominent members of the Chinese Communist Party.

Heywood appears to have played the role of a Bai Shoutao or white glove for the Bo family, doing business on their behalf, since, according to Chinese custom, a prominent party family could not involve themselves directly with financial dealings.

Businessmen have complained that any foreign company wishing to work in Chongqing had to appoint Gu Kailai's law firm, Kailai Law (now Beijing Ang-dao Law), to act on its behalf.

Failing to do so would almost certainly result in it being unable to attain required permissions and licences.

It has been reported that Kailai Law charged exorbitant fees.

Heywood's clients included Beijing Aston Martin dealerships and Rolls-Royce.

He was also hired occasionally by Hakluyt & Company, a consultancy co-founded by a former officer of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

Rumors that Heywood might have been employed as an agent by MI6 have been denied by Foreign Secretary William Hague, an unusual move, as the British government typically refuses to comment on the identity of its agents.

He reportedly met with the Bo family in Dalian, the northeast metropolis where Bo was mayor from 1994 to 2000.

Heywood was then working at a Dalian English-language school, and helped Bo's youngest son gain admission to Harrow.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Heywood and Gu "shared a long and close personal relationship, but were not romantically involved."

The Daily Telegraph reported that Gu Kailai testified Heywood was murdered because he demanded £1.4 million in compensation for the return of a half-share of ownership of a £2 million house – originally bought by Gu in 2000 – in the hills overlooking Cannes.

The court heard Heywood had blackmailed the family and threatened to expose their corrupt ownership of a villa in the French Riviera.

As Heywood's relationship with the Bo–Gu family descended into acrimony, Gu stated that Heywood had threatened the safety of Bo's 25-year-old son, Bo Guagua.

Following a corruption investigation in 2007, Gu is said to have become increasingly paranoid.

The Wall Street Journal later reported they had confirmed, after interviewing former and current British officials and others, that Heywood had since 2009 been regularly supplying information to MI6, although he was not an MI6 employee.

Heywood had business links with Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai.

In 2010, she allegedly asked Heywood and other close associates to divorce their spouses and swear allegiance to her.

On 14 November 2011, Heywood was summoned to Chongqing by Gu Kailai.

She sent Zhang Xiaojun (张晓军) to bring him from Beijing to the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel (南山丽景度假酒店).

Zhang Xiaojun is described as an 'orderly' in the Bo household.

Months after Heywood's death (6 February 2012), Wang fled to the US consulate in Chengdu, and allegedly told US diplomats of Heywood having been poisoned, and Bo's family was involved in corruption.

The incident precipitated Bo's high-profile sacking two weeks later.

According to a reinvestigation by the Chinese authorities, evidence indicates Heywood was murdered, with Bo Xilai's wife Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, being "highly suspected", according to Xinhua News.

On 26 July 2012, Gu Kailai was charged with the murder of Heywood and in August was convicted of the crime.