Gu Kailai

Gu Kailai (born 15 November 1958) is a Chinese former lawyer and businesswoman. She is the second wife of former Politburo member Bo Xilai, one of China's most influential politicians until he was stripped of his offices in 2012. In August 2012, Gu was convicted of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood and was given a suspended death sentence.^[1][2][3]

Family

Gu is the youngest of five daughters of General Gu Jingsheng, a prominent revolutionary in the years before the Chinese Communist Party took power.^[4] General Gu held various government positions during early Communist rule but was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. Gu Kailai herself was also punished, being forced to work in a butcher shop and a textile factory.

Gu met Bo Xilai in 1984 while on a field trip looking into environmental art in Jin County, Liaoning, where he was the Communist Party secretary. The couple have one son, Bo Kuangyi, known as Guagua,^[5] who studied at Harrow School, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.^[6]

Comments by her husband and son

In 2009, her son talked about her to a Chinese news media：“Dad often talks about my mother with me, he feels that she is very great, thoughtful, creative, can do anything to the best. She had a very successful law firm, to avoid suspicion, she decided to quit at the peak of her career. Dad said, in fact, this is not only her personal loss, it is also a career's loss. He even said that, if he was stepping down to support my mother, she could have done even better! After she quit, she was living a hermit's life, didn't go to any social events, dad sometimes asked her to attend social activities, she even refused. I can totally understand her, she doesn't want to live under dad's shadow, and lost herself. Now she reads and does academic researches all day, studies "comparative culture".^[7]

In March 2012, her husband told the Chinese News Media, "my wife Kailai....she was a very successful lawyer twenty years ago, but she was afraid that people might spread rumors, so she closed her very busy law firm. Over the years, she only reads books, engages in some art activities, does house chores, accompanies me quietly." ^[8]

Career

Gu Kailai gained a degree in law and then a masters in international politics from Peking University.^[9] She went on to become an accomplished lawyer founding the Kailai law firm in Beijing.^[10] In the course of her career, she was involved in several high-profile cases, and is suggested to have been the first Chinese lawyer to win a civil suit in the United States, where she represented several Dalian-area companies involved in a dispute in Mobile, Alabama.^[11] She is also the author of several books.

Views on justice systems

After visiting the United States, Kailai ridiculed the U.S. justice system as inept, writing “They can level charges against dogs and a court can even convict a husband of raping his wife,” she wrote. Kailai wrote that, “We don’t play with words and we adhere to the principle of ‘based on facts,’...You will be arrested, sentenced and executed as long as we determine that you killed someone.”^[12]

Murder investigation

In March 2012, Gu became embroiled in a national scandal after her husband's deputy, Wang Lijun, apparently sought refuge at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu. It was rumored that Wang presented evidence of a corruption scandal, whereby Bo sought to impede a corruption investigation against Gu.^[13] Specifically, Wang stated that Gu had been involved in a business dispute with British businessman Neil Heywood, who died in Chongqing under disputed circumstances; Wang alleged he had been poisoned. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wang may have fallen out of favor with Bo for discussing the Heywood case.^[11][14]

Following the Wang Lijun incident and Bo's removal from key Communist Party posts, Gu was placed under investigation for homicide in Heywood's death.^[15] On 10 April 2012, Gu was detained and "transferred to the judicial authorities" as part of the investigation.^[16] In an unusual move, state media appended her husband's surname in front of her own (rendering her name as Bo Gu Kailai), extremely unusual for married women in People's Republic of China, without any explanation. Some speculate that it may imply that Gu may have acquired citizenship of a foreign country, and as a result "Bo Gu Kailai" appeared on her official documents;^[17] Others suggest that this is because authorities wanted to emphasize that Gu's alleged crimes were linked to misconduct by her husband.^[18]

On 26 July 2012, Gu Kailai was formally charged with murdering Heywood, based on what the prosecutor claimed was "irrefutable and substantial" evidence.^[19][20][21] On 9 August 2012, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, Gu admitted during a one-day trial that she was responsible for Heywood's murder. She claimed that her actions were due to a "mental breakdown", and stated that she would "accept and calmly face any sentence".^[22]

Verdict

On 20 August 2012, Gu Kailai received a suspended death sentence, which is normally commuted to a life sentence after two years, but she could be released on medical parole after serving nine years in prison.^[23] The trial lasted one day, and Gu did not contest her charges. Zhang Xiaojun, a Bo family aide, was sentenced to nine years in jail for his involvement in the murder,^[1] to which he confessed.^[2]

After the media published footage of the trial, claims that the woman shown in court was not in fact Gu Kailai, but a body double, quickly became popular on Chinese Internet fora, and Chinese authorities attempted to censor them. The Financial Times cited "security experts familiar with facial recognition software" as stating that the person who stood trial was not Gu Kailai,^[24][25] whereas a facial recognition expert contacted by Slate was of the opinion that the woman most likely was Gu. The practice of rich people paying others to stand trial and receive punishment in their place, called ding zui, is relatively widespread in China.^[26]

Following the verdict, the United Kingdom announced that it welcomed the investigation, and said that they "consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards and for the death penalty not to be applied."^[1][3] BBC News commented that "informed observers see the fingerprints of the Communist Party of China all over this outcome", stating that the trial's conclusion was "all too neat and uncannily suited to one particular agenda", that of limiting the scandal's damage.^[27] The New York Times suggested the verdict "raised questions about official corruption and political favoritism within the Communist Party."^[28]

Official story

The official story of the Heywood murder goes as follows.^[29] Neil Heywood demanded that Gu pay him $22 million after a real estate venture failed. At one point, Heywood sent an email which threatened her son. Due to this threat, Gu decided to murder Heywood. At a hotel in Chongqing, Gu gave Heywood whiskey and tea. Heywood became drunk and vomited. When he tried to go to bed, Gu poured animal poison into his mouth and she placed pills next to him to make it appear as though he had overdosed on drugs.

Alternative story

According to Reuters, at the end of 2011, Gu asked Heywood to move a large amount of money out of China.^[30] Heywood agreed to do that if Gu paid him a certain amount of money. But Heywood asked for a larger cut of the money than Gu expected. When Gu told Heywood he was being greedy, Heywood threatened to expose what Gu was doing. Gu was outraged and decided to kill Heywood.

There is some evidence that Gu had a history of moving large amounts of money outside China. Wang Lijun wrote two letters to the Central Discipline Inspection Commission which accused Gu of moving several hundred million dollars out of the country. Upon receiving the letters, the CDIC did nothing officially in response to them.^[31]

References