Acquaintances said he was always careful not to disclose how precisely he
was tied to the Bo family. And no one has explained why, after a yearlong
estrangement from the Bos, he turned up last November in Chongqing, the
provincial level metropolitan region where Bo Xilai presided as party chief.
At that time, Mr. Bo, who was angling for a seat on the nine-member Standing
Committee, the Communist Party’s highest-ranking body, had been under
investigation by China’s Commission for Discipline Inspection. His
handpicked police chief, Wang Lijun, who sowed fear in the city with an
unshackled crackdown on organized crime that won Mr. Bo national attention,
was also under scrutiny.
According to one account, Mr. Wang was summoned to Beijing to give evidence
against Mr. Bo that was then leaked or disclosed to Mr. Bo. That may have
been what set off a high-stakes vendetta between the two men and Mr. Wang’s
decision to seek refuge in an American consulate about 200 miles from
Chongqing in early February, bearing information on the investigation into
Mr. Heywood’s death — and the sensational accusations that Ms. Gu had
plotted to poison him.
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