Lawmakers asked the British government on Thursday about rumors that a businessman whose murder sparked political upheaval in China may have been a spy and demanded to know why it took so long for ministers to be told of suspicions about his death.
Police in China initially attributed the death of Neil Heywood, 41, in a hotel room in the Chinese city of Chongqing in November last year, to cardiac arrest caused by over-consumption of alcohol.
However, this month -authorities said they believed it was a murder and named the wife of Bo Xilai (薄熙來), the former Communist Party chief of Chongqing city, as a suspect.
The British Foreign Office has since come under fire at home for being slow to demand that China investigate the case.
British media have also speculated that Heywood may have been a British spy, but Heywood’s relatives and a British security source have denied there were any grounds for such rumors.
Richard Ottaway, chairman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to British Foreign Secretary William Hague demanding clarification.
“I would be grateful if you would make clear what relationship the British consulate-general [in] Chongqing or the British Embassy in Beijing had with Mr Heywood before his death,” wrote Ottaway, who is a member of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party.
“Did he supply the British consulate or embassy with information, either on a formal or informal basis?” he asked.
The Foreign Office said it would reply in full to the letter within a week, as requested by Ottaway, but said it did not comment on intelligence issues.
“However we can confirm Mr Heywood was not an employee of the British government,” a spokeswoman said.
A security source said Heywood did not work for, or have a relationship with, Britain’s intelligence services.
Hague released a detailed account this week of the British government’s involvement in the Heywood case to counter accusations from politicians that it had not acted quickly enough to make its concerns public.
“We see nothing improper or inconsistent in what he [Hague] said ... but we would like a bit more flesh on the bones,” Ottaway said.
Chinese officials notified British diplomats of Heywood’s death on Nov. 16, according to Hague’s account. Foreign Office officials first heard on Jan. 18 about rumors among British expatriates in China that there may have been suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.
However, Hague was not told about the case until Feb. 7, the day after Wang Lijun (王立軍), Bo’s once-trusted police chief, fled to a US consulate in an apparent attempt to secure asylum, alleging that Bo’s wife was involved in Heywood’s death.
“Why were earlier rumors about Mr Heywood’s death, which reached [Foreign Office] staff in January, not communicated to ministers immediately?” Ottaway said.
The Foreign Affairs Committee has the power to open an inquiry and hold hearings into Heywood’s death. Asked if it would do so, Ottaway said: “Let’s wait and see.”
Heywood was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by Bo’s wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of a Chinese police investigation said this week.
On Tuesday, Hague said that ministers were not routinely told about the death of British nationals abroad, but insisted that the government pressed repeatedly for an investigation.
“We have asked for, we have demanded, an investigation. The Chinese authorities have agreed to conduct such an investigation,” Hague said. “We are pursuing this extremely carefully, but vigorously.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was