A friend of Neil Heywood has said the British businessman told him the day before he died that he was "in trouble" and had been summoned to the Chinese city of Chongqing by representatives of party boss Bo Xilai's family.
Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, is in custody accused of murdering Heywood in the south-western city in November. Her husband has been stripped of his political posts and is under investigation for "serious disciplinary violations".
Heywood's friend told the Wall Street Journal that the businessman had been unable to reach any of his usual contacts after arriving in Chongqing. He had previously told the same friend he had left documents on the overseas investments of Bo's family with a lawyer in Britain, as an "insurance policy" in case anything happened to him.
The newspaper, however, added that other friends of Heywood said they had not heard him talk about having a lawyer in Britain or leaving documents, and that it was not clear whether the documents actually existed.
Questions have been raised as to how Bo and Gu paid for their son Bo Guagua's expensive education at two private schools in England – Papplewick and Harrow – and at Oxford University, given that Bo's salary as an official would not have covered the fees and that his wife was said to have curtailed her career. Bo said he won full scholarships.
Heywood had previously told friends that Gu had become increasingly anxious that she had been betrayed by a member of the family's inner circle. Relations appear to have soured in 2010 and the Times reported that Heywood unsuccessfully sought a passport for his Chinese wife that year, going straight to the Home Office in London with his mother.
Others who spoke to Heywood last year, however, said he seemed sanguine about the falling-out. Tom Reed, a British journalist who dined with him shortly before his death, said Heywood had told him that he had not spoken to the family for around a year, apart from brief contact with Bo Guagua, but showed no sign of being "bitter, angry or scared" about the breach in relations.
The news came as Chinese state media pressed home its denunciation of Bo and message of unity.
An article published by the Chongqing Daily and carried by multiple other outlets said Zhang Dejiang – Bo's replacement as party secretary – had briefed a meeting on the need to "strengthen the education, management and supervision over all … officials, especially senior officials in the government and party, and manage oneself, one's relatives and the personnel around one well".
Another article on the homepage of the state news agency Xinhua said that "officials and the public everywhere" believed the decision on Bo showed the central committee's determination to strictly manage the party and manage the country by law.
