THE POLITICAL scandal surrounding the purging of a senior Communist Party member and the suspected murder of a British businessman in China continued to deepen yesterday, with many Chinese people saying they believed the case was linked to faction fighting among the powerful.
Meanwhile, the party said it was committed to investigating a political scandal that includes Neil Heywood’s death, after fresh appeals from British politicians for a prompt inquiry free of political influence.
China is bogged down in its biggest political crisis in years. There is much speculation about what exactly is going on and how Bo Xilai went from being the crusading, successful party boss in Chongqing to being linked to a murder investigation.
Mr Bo was sacked as Chongqing’s party secretary on March 15th and suspended as a politburo member for serious violations of discipline. His wife, Gu Kailai, and aide, Zhang Xiaojun, were formally named on April 10th as suspects in the death of Mr Heywood, a long-time resident of China and a friend and business associate of the Bo family.
British prime minister David Cameron and foreign secretary William Hague both held talks about the issue with China’s propaganda chief, Li Changchun, during his visit to Britain.
Mr Bo’s former police chief, Wang Lijun, made a shock visit to the US consulate in the nearby city of Chengdu back in February, during which he expressed suspicions about Mr Heywood’s death, originally deemed accidental, before being taken into the custody of investigators in Beijing.
The party’s central committee “has made a resolute decision to thoroughly investigate related events and release information in a timely manner, a manifestation of its high sense of responsibility to the causes of the party and the people,” the Xinhua news agency said in a statement.
“Based on the facts made public so far, the Wang Lijun incident is a serious political event that has created an adverse influence both at home and abroad,” the statement said. “The death of Neil Heywood is a serious criminal case involving the kin and aides of a party and state leader, and Bo has seriously violated party discipline.”
