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伴君如伴虎,鬼佬這次讀懂中文了?
本帖最後由 huasendg 於 2012-3-31 18:05 編輯
首頁:屬於內部小圈子成員 谷開來曾要海伍德離婚發誓效忠薄家
京港台時間:2012/4/1 消息來源:明鏡網
華爾街日報31日刊登題為「Inside Elite Chinese Circle, Brit Came to Fear for His Life」的文章,詳細披露了海伍德之死和薄熙來(專題)的關係。以下是摘要翻譯,如有出入,以英文原文為準:
在敏感時期死於中國的英國人海伍德曾告訴朋友,他失寵於中共領導人薄熙來(專題)的妻子后,對自己的安全擔心。海伍德屬於薄熙來(專題)內部小圈子的成員。
海伍德在11月死亡之前幾個月對和谷開來的關係惡化表示擔憂,谷開來相信家庭小圈子中的某人背叛了他們。
有人引述海伍德的話, 谷開來複雜處理薄家的商業事務,變得越來越怪異,甚至要求海伍德和中國的妻子離婚,併發誓效忠薄家。
王立軍(專題)在美領館披露,他曾告訴薄熙來,他相信海伍德是被毒死的。這個談話引發了薄熙來的倒台。王立軍(專題)還透露海伍德捲入了和薄熙來妻子的商業糾紛。
海伍德去年11月在重慶酒店死亡,警方沒做屍檢就火化了,死亡原因是「飲酒過量」,但熟悉海伍德的朋友稱海伍德不喝酒。有人稱,他中國的妻子和2個孩子仍在中國,應該受到當地政府的壓力。
更奇怪的是,海伍德在英國的家人最近宣稱,海伍德死於心臟病。 另外一個問題是,為什麼海伍德的家人沒提出要調查死因,但英國政府卻堅持調查?
由前英國情報人員成立的Hakluyt & Co.公司的發言人稱,海伍德為該公司做兼職工作。
海伍德的數名朋友稱他是薄家的「中間人」,從大連時就開始建立關係。有人稱海伍德通過他中國的妻子建立了關係,也有人說是海伍德自己建立的這個關係。
海伍德和薄家的關係因為安排薄瓜瓜到哈羅大學讀書而更密切,據信海伍德也畢業於此校,但哈羅大學拒絕對此評論。
海伍德對朋友透露,自從谷開來面臨腐敗的調查,她變得越來越多疑。谷開來要求小圈子的人和他們的配偶離婚,併發誓效忠薄家。海伍德的朋友們不清楚他為什麼沒斷絕和薄家的聯繫並離開中國,有人稱,海伍德很想恢復和薄熙來的有利可圖的一個安排。
ASIA NEWS Updated March 31, 2012, 6:51 a.m. ET
Inside Elite Chinese Circle, Brit Came to Fear for His Life
By JEREMY PAGE

Neil Heywood, the Briton whose death in China is at the center of a Chinese political crisis, told friends he feared for his safety because he had fallen out with the wife of a senior Communist Party leader, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Heywood had claimed to be part of the small inner circle of Bo Xilai, a former political rising star whose sacking as party chief of the city of Chongqing this month set off one of the biggest upheavals in Chinese politics since the Tiananmen Square crackdown on demonstrators in 1989.
Mr. Heywood expressed concern in the months leading up to his death in November that relations had dramatically deteriorated between him and Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, as she became convinced someone in the family's inner circle had betrayed them, the people said.
One of the people quoted Mr. Heywood as saying that Ms. Gu handled much of the Bo family business but had grown increasingly erratic and at some point had asked Mr. Heywood to divorce his Chinese wife and swear an oath of loyalty, becoming angry when he refused.
Ms. Gu, a prominent lawyer, hasn't been accused of any crime, and local authorities attributed Mr. Heywood's death to excessive use of alcohol, according to British officials. Attempts to contact Ms. Gu directly and through intermediaries were unsuccessful.
The accounts of Mr. Heywood's safety concerns are significant because the only previous suggestion of tension between him and the Bo family stemmed from Wang Lijun, who was Chongqing police chief under Mr. Bo but abruptly took refuge in a U.S. consulate one day in early February.
Mr. Wang claimed to have told his boss he believed Mr. Heywood had been poisoned—a discussion that led to a falling-out with Mr. Bo—according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Wang also claimed that Mr. Heywood had been involved in a business dispute with Mr. Bo's wife, these people said.
Mr. Wang presented documentary evidence involving his former boss as he tried to negotiate safe passage to the U.S., said diplomats and others familiar with the matter. He was persuaded instead, these people said, to hand himself over to Chinese central-government officials, who detained him when he left the U.S. consulate in the city of Chengdu on Feb. 7.
A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said on Thursday that Mr. Wang also had sought a meeting at the British consulate in Chongqing in early February, but didn't state for what purpose and didn't turn up for the meeting. That is a detail about which the British government had previously remained silent. On Friday, the foreign-office spokesman wouldn't comment on the accounts of Mr. Heyward's safety concerns or his relationship with the Bo family.
Attempts to contact Mr. Bo and Mr. Wang, directly and through intermediaries, were unsuccessful. China's Foreign Ministry said Friday it had no information on the case.
As well as potentially disrupting China's once-a-decade leadership change scheduled for next fall—Mr. Bo was seen until recently as one who might be promoted to the top-level Politburo Standing Committee—the unfolding drama now has an additional international dimension. The handling of the Heywood case could affect China's relations with Britain, not to mention possibly exacerbating safety concerns in the foreign business community in China.
When Mr. Heywood was found dead in his hotel room in Chongqing in November, local authorities swiftly cremated his body without an autopsy after saying the death was due to excessive alcohol consumption, according to British officials; they have said they had no suspicions at the time.
The death was thrust to the center of the broader political drama on Sunday when Britain announced that it had asked the Chinese central government to investigate the matter fully, in light of fresh suspicions about it, and that China had responded by promising to "take it forward."
The Foreign Office said Thursday that it made the request in "mid-February," based on concerns raised in the British community in China.
Many unanswered questions about the case remain, such as why a quick cremation without an autopsy took place when many of Mr. Heywood's friends say he was either a teetotaler or only a light drinker. Some people familiar with the matter have said that his wife, still in China with the couple's two children, came under pressure from local authorities.
It is also unclear why Mr. Heywood's family in Britain has recently been saying that he died of a heart attack when an autopsy hadn't been performed, and when British officials say they were told the cause related to alcohol use. Mr. Heywood's parents and sister didn't respond to a request for comment. Chongqing police have denied any knowledge of Mr. Heywood's case.
Another question is why the British government asked for a probe of Mr. Heywood's death when his family hasn't, an unusual situation for consular matters, in which precedence is usually given to the family's wishes.
The accounts of Mr. Heywood's safety concerns point to the unusual situation he was in as a foreigner who, say friends, had become a confidant of a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo and had knowledge of some of the Bo family's affairs.
Mr. Heywood was in a unique position to arrange access to Mr. Bo, who had sweeping powers and sought the company of international figures.
Mr. Heywood was also doing part-time work for Hakluyt & Co., a firm that gathers strategic business information and was founded by former members of Britain's foreign-intelligence service, MI6, according to a company spokesman.
It is unclear what Mr. Heywood, who lived in a villa in Beijing, was doing in Chongqing when he died. Friends said he did due-diligence work, investigating Chinese companies and individuals, for Hakluyt and several other companies, and was an adviser to a Beijing dealer in Aston Martin sports cars.
Several friends also said he was a "fixer," or middleman, for the Bo family, having formed a relationship with the family while living in the city of Dalian, where Mr. Bo was mayor from 1993 to 2001. Mr. Heywood played a role in organizing meetings between the elder Mr. Bo and foreign officials and business people, the friends said. Some thought the connection was through Mr. Heywood's wife, while others understood that he had made contact with Mr. Bo himself.
Mr. Heywood's relationship with the family became especially close after he played a key role in organizing a place for Mr. Bo's son, Guagua, at Harrow, an exclusive British private school that usually requires entrants to be on a waiting list from birth, and helping to look after the son while he was there between 2001 and 2006.
Mr. Heywood, who was 41, also attended Harrow, leaving in 1988, according to people familiar with the matter. The school declined to comment.
Sir Charles Powell, a foreign-policy adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, also helped to look after Guagua, said people familiar with the matter. Guagua went on to study at Oxford University and is now studying for a postgraduate degree at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He has been seen there in recent days, said several people. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Mr. Heywood claimed to have had particularly close dealings with Ms. Gu, who like her husband was the child of a famed Chinese revolutionary figure. Ms Gu became one of China's most prominent lawyers after the firm she started, Kailai, became among the first to win a civil suit in America. She wrote a popular book about it called "Winning a Lawsuit in the U.S."
As Mr. Bo rose through party ranks, Ms. Gu, who is his second wife, gave up her legal career to focus on raising Guagua and managing the family's personal affairs, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Heywood said that Ms. Gu became increasingly neurotic and suspicious of those around her after she was subjected to a corruption investigation in China around the time Mr. Bo was made party chief of Chongqing in 2007, according to one of Mr. Heywood's friends.
That friend recalled Mr. Heywood as describing how Ms. Gu had demanded that some in the inner circle divorce their spouses and swear loyalty to the Bo family.
This friend and others said it was unclear why Mr. Heywood hadn't tried to sever the relationship and leave China. Some said he was keen to repair a potentially lucrative arrangement with Mr. Bo.
Mr. Bo had won the praise of several fellow leaders and Chinese academics for his policies in Chongqing, which included a high-profile crackdown on organized crime, heavy spending on infrastructure and a campaign to revive the revolutionary spirit of Mao Zedong.
He antagonized other leaders, who felt that his campaign against gangsters entailed abuse of the legal system and that his Maoist revival glossed over the suffering of the 1950s and 60s when tens of millions died in a man-made famine and political purges.
Mr. Bo's political career is now effectively over, his fate in the balance as party factions debate whether he should remain on the Politburo, with a powerless role, or be removed from all party posts or perhaps face punishment, according to analysts, diplomats and people close to the party elite.
The debate reflects a broader ideological struggle in the party as Mr. Bo's supporters favor his brand of government—relying on strong state intervention in society and the economy—while many of his opponents advocate greater emphasis on private enterprise and civil society.
Mr. Bo's whereabouts is unknown. At his last public appearance, at a news conference during a parliament meeting March 9, he defended himself and his family against what he described as allegations originating from gangsters he had targeted in his crime crackdown.
"A few people have been pouring filth on Chongqing and me and my family," Mr. Bo said.
Mr. Bo went on to say his wife had given up her legal career two decades ago when they were living in Dalian so they wouldn't be accused of profiting from his position.
"She now basically just stays at home, doing some housework for me. I'm really touched by her sacrifice," he said.
—Cassell Bryan-Low contributed to this article.
Write to Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared Mar. 31, 2012, on page A1 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Inside Elite Chinese Circle, Brit Came to Fear for His Life. |
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