Chinese Daily Photos, 2011 to 2019!

CHONGQING, China (Reuters) -British businessman Neil Heywood poses for a photograph at a gallery in Beijing, in this handout dated April 12, 2011. The British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader's wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said.

It was the first time a specific motive has been revealed for Neil Heywood's murder last November, a death which ended Chinese leader Bo Xilai's hopes of emerging as a top central leader and threw off balance the Communist Party's looming leadership succession.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.

She accused him of being greedy and hatched a plan to kill him after he said he could expose her dealings, one of the sources said, summarizing the police case. Both sources have spoken to investigators in Chongqing, the southwestern Chinese city where Heywood was killed and where Bo had cast himself as a crime-fighting Communist Party leader.

Gu is in police custody on suspicion of committing or arranging Heywood's murder, though no details of the motive or the crime itself have been publicly released, other than a general comment from Chinese state media that he was killed after a financial dispute.

The sources have close ties to Chinese police and said they were given details of the investigation.

They said Heywood - formerly a close friend of Gu and who had been helping her with her overseas financial dealings - was killed after he threatened to expose what she was doing.

"Heywood told her that if she thought he was being too greedy, then he didn't need to become involved and wouldn't take a penny of the money, but he also said he could also expose it," the first source said.

The sources said police suspect the 41-year-old was poisoned by a drink. They did not know precisely where he died in Chongqing. But they and other sources with access to official information say they believe Heywood was killed at a secluded hilltop retreat, the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel, which is also marketed as the Lucky Holiday Hotel.

The sources said Gu and Heywood, who had lived in China since the early 1990s, shared a long and close personal relationship, but were not romantically involved.

The sources did not know details of the offshore transactions that Heywood facilitated for Gu, but said exposure of the deals would have imperiled her and her ambitious husband, who was campaigning for promotion to the top ranks of China's leadership. Bo has since been ousted over the scandal.

"After Gu Kailai found that Heywood wouldn't agree to go along and was even resisting with threats - that he could expose this money with unknown provenance - then that was a major risk to Gu Kailai and Bo Xilai," said the first source, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

It was not possible to get official confirmation of the case police are building against Gu. The Chinese government did not respond to faxed questions about the case. Some of Bo's leftist supporters have said the case could be a campaign to discredit him.

Gu, who is in custody and facing a possible death sentence for murder, and Bo could not be reached for comment. Bo has not been seen since appearing at parliament in March, when he held a news conference decrying the "filth" being poured on his family.

Efforts to contact Heywood's mother and sister at their homes in London were unsuccessful. The door to the mother's home carried a note saying she would not speak to reporters.

HEYWOOD WAS GU'S 'SOULMATE'

Heywood had spent his last week in Chongqing in Nan'an district, an area politically loyal to Bo, and stayed at two hotels: the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel and the Sheraton hotel.

Staff at each hotel said they knew nothing of a British man dying there. A guard was barring access to an apparently empty row of villas within the grounds of the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel on Sunday and Monday, saying a meeting was going on.

Heywood's falling-out with Gu followed a period in which she had grown distant from her ambitious, perpetually busy husband and she had turned to Heywood as a soulmate, sources said.

"Bo and Gu Kailai had not been a proper husband and wife for years ... Gu Kailai and Heywood had a deep personal relationship and she took the break between them deeply to heart," said Wang Kang, a well-connected Chongqing businessman who has learned some details of the case from Chinese officials.

"Her mentality was 'you betrayed me, and so I'll get my revenge'," Wang said in his office, decorated with pictures of himself meeting senior officials, including Bo's late father, the revolutionary veteran Bo Yibo, a comrade of Mao Zedong.

Heywood got to know the powerful family when Bo Xilai was mayor of Dalian in the 1990s. Heywood helped with getting the couple's son, Bo Guagua, into an exclusive British school, Harrow, said one of the sources with police contacts.

The scandal over Heywood's death broke in February when Bo's former police chief, Wang Lijun, fled to a U.S. consulate after he had confronted Bo with allegations of Gu's involvement. He spent about 24 hours inside the consulate before he left into the hands of Chinese central government authorities.

Bo was stripped of all his party positions last week, ending his bid to join the upper echelons of the Chinese leadership at a Party Congress late this year, and opening the door to jockeying among rivals to get a place in the new lineup.

It was not immediately clear how Heywood would have helped Gu shift large sums of money offshore, though China's capital controls pose a formidable barrier to anyone trying to move large sums of yuan out of the country.

Chinese leaders' salaries are not extravagant and there have been questions about how Bo managed to fund the expensive Western schooling and lifestyle for his son, Bo Guagua, who also studied at Oxford university and is enrolled at Harvard. Bo said in March the schools were funded by scholarships.

The sources said there had been no sign of any dispute between Gu and Heywood until October and November when the argument over funds began. The lack of a paper trail made it difficult for police to determine how much money was involved, they added.

Police suspect Heywood took a poisoned drink, according to one of the sources, and died on November 15. Both sources said Gu was not present at the scene.

The sources said Heywood had stayed at the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel, a secluded complex of rooms and villas in green hills overlooking Chongqing that Gu Kailai had visited in the past. Staff there said they had no knowledge of the death of a British man at the hotel in November.

(Additional reporting by William Maclean in LONDON and Benjamin Kang Lim in BEIJING; Editing by Brian Rhoads, Mark Bendeich and Dean Yates)

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A security guard stands guard next to Sheraton Chongqing Hotel which is believed by sources to be the place where Neil Heywood was murdered, in Chongqing municipality April 16, 2012.

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China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai (R) and his wife Gu Kailai stand at a mourning held for his father Bo Yibo, former vice-chairman of the Central Advisory Commission of the Communist Party of China, in Beijing in this January 17, 2007 file photo. Neil Heywood, a British businessman whose murder has sparked political upheaval in China, was poisoned after he threatened to expose a plan by a Chinese leader's wife to move money abroad, two sources with knowledge of the police investigation said. It was the first time a specific motive has been revealed for Heywood's murder last November 2011, a death which ended Chinese leader Bo's hopes of emerging as a top central leader and threw off balance the Communist Party's looming leadership succession. Picture taken January 17, 2007.

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Firefighters search for victims at the rubble of a four-story residential complex after a blast ripped through a garage in Daji Village in Longyan, southeastern China's Fujian province on April 15, 2012, killing nine people and leaving 55 others injured. Safety standards are regularly flouted in China, and workplace accidents remain common despite repeated pledges by the government to improve regulations and oversight, as nearly 50,000 people died in work-related accidents in the first nine months of 2011.

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Family members grieve as a body of a victim lies near the rubble of a four-story residential complex after a blast ripped through a garage in Daji Village in Longyan, southeastern China's Fujian province on April 15, 2012, killing nine people and leaving 55 others injured.

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An employee arranges bundles of Renminbi banknotes at a bank in Suining, Sichuan province April 16, 2012. China's weekend reform of its currency regime nails shut the coffin on the last remains of doubt about whether the world's second biggest economy has successfully steered a course past a hard economic landing.

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A visitor (R) poses alongside a wax figure of Hu Jintao (L), leader of the People's Republic of China, on the opening day of the new Madame Tussauds exhibition in Sydney on April 16, 2012. It has taken a staggering 56,000 hours of work and over 1,750 kg of Japanese and bee's wax to create the collection of over 70 figures now on display at the attraction, the first of its kind to land on Australian shores.

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Chinese Cantonese opera singers perform during the Tin Hau Festival on Lamma Island, a twenty minute ferry ride from Hong Kong on April 15, 2012. Tin Hau is known as the Goddess of the Sea and hails from the Taoist religion. The Queen of the Waves maintains high popularity ratings amongst Hong Kongers, due to the close association between the territory and the sea – two other sea-faring nations, Macau and Vietnam also hold Tin Hau in high-regard.

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This picture taken on April 15, 2012 shows Hong Kong model Angelababy arrives at the 31st Hong Kong Film Awards. The annual awards are the Hong Kong equivalent to the Oscars and the British BAFTAS.

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Jia Qinglin (L), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), meets with Lockwood Smith, speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, during Jia's visit in Wellington, New Zealand, April 16, 2012. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

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Fisherman Cheng Minghai (1st L), Li Liang (2nd L), Deng Yeping (2nd R) and Xu Detan (1st R) pose for photos in front of their fishing boat in Qionghai City, south China's Hainan Province, April 15, 2012. All 12 Chinese fishing vessels, which had sought refuge from bad weather at a lagoon off the Huangyan Island but were blocked the entrance of the lagoon by a warship of the Philippines on April 8, left the lagoon in Huangyan Island on Saturday after a five-day stalemate. One fishing boat has safely returned to Qionghai of south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

HAIKOU, April 15 (Xinhua) -- One of the 12 Chinese fishing boats has returned to port, nearly a week after they were harassed by the Philippine Navy in the Huangyan Island in the South China Sea.

The Qiong-Qionghai 09099, a Hainan-registered fishing boat, returned to the Tanmen Port in Qionghai City in the island province of Hainan Saturday evening and was currently unloading the catch, its crew said.

Twelve Chinese fishing boats moved into the lagoon in China's Huangyan Island to take refuge from harsh weather on April 8 but were seized and harassed by a Philippine Naval gunboat on April 10. Two Chinese Marine Surveillance ships, which were doing routine patrol in the area, were immediately sent to the site to protect the fishermen.

"The Huangyan Island is the traditional fishing site for residents in Tanmen, and we have fished there since ancient times," said He Shixuan, owner of Qiong-Qionghai 09099.

Liu Weimin, spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, earlier reiterated that Huangyan Island is an integral part of Chinese territory and China has indisputable sovereignty over the island.

All the 12 fishing boats have left the lagoon in the Huangyan Island, and some are continuing their fishing in the South China Sea, according to the local fishermen association in Tanmen.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (L) listen to the national anthems during an official welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 17, 2012. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is on a four-day official visit to China.

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LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 17: Li Changchun Of The Chinese Communist Party is greeted by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in Downing Street on April 17, 2012 in London, England. Mr Chanchun is due to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron later for talks, which are expected to focus on trade, and the cultural and education links between Britain and China.

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BEIJING, CHINA - APRIL 17: Chinese young athletes practice Taekwondo techniques before the rehearsal of ceremony to mark 100-day countdown to London 2012 Olympic Games outside the Bird's Nest on April 17, 2012 in Beijing, China. The 100-day countdown to London 2012 Olympic Games falls on April 18, 2012.

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QINGDAO, CHINA - APRIL 17: Lin Dan of China waves as he won during his match against Riichi Takeshita of Japan during day One of the 2012 Badminton Asia Championships at Qingdao Guoxin Gymnasium on April 17, 2012 in Qingdao, China.

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A Chinese worker sews undergarments at a textile factory in Jinjiang, southeast China's Fujian province on November 5, 2008. At least 2.7 million factory workers in southern China could lose their jobs as the global economic crisis hits demand for electronics, toys and clothes, as the region has seen massive export-driven expansion in recent years by supplying the world with cheap consumer goods, but rising production costs and falling US and European demand have marked a swift end to the boom.

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An official from local Food and Drug Administration, left, checks out capsule medicine in a drug store in Qingdao in east China's Shandong province, Monday, April 16, 2012. China's State Food and Drug Administration suspended the sale of 13 drugs that it said are believed to have been made with capsules that contain excessive chromium. (AP Photo)

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Chinese farmers tend to their bees producing honey to supplement their income at a farm in Hefei, east China's Anhui province on April 15, 2012. China's subsidies to farmers grew six-fold to reach 147 billion USD in 2010, with an increasing amount going to propping up farmers' pay.

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Chinese hairdresser Huang Xin (L) gestures as he shows his creations made from human hair in the likeness of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (from L to R), Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, a stadium, an Olympic torch and a London Olympic Games site, which is based on an illustration design, to celebrate the upcoming Olympic Games, at his solon in Beijing April 17, 2012.

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A man cleans the area in front of the artwork "east is red" by Chinese artist Zou Cao at the art fair in Cologne, Germany, Tuesday, April 17, 2012. Around 200 leading international galleries show and sell selected top 20th and 21st century artworks at the ART COLOGNE until April 22.

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A pedestrian faces the rainy weather in the Chinatown district of Los Angeles on Friday, April 13, 2012.

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Students at Chongqing University dress up in various costumes for the ceremony of the university's spring sports meeting in Chongqing, April 13, 2012. [Photo/CFP

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Participants prepare to fly their kites during a kite flying competition in Weifang, east China's Shandong Province, April 17, 2012. A total of 1,156 kites from 95 teams attended the competition Tuesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Chi)

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Sun Fengqin, 60, poses with two young dancers during pole dance practice in Nanjing city, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, April 12, 2012. [Photo/CFP]

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Sun Fengqin, 60, entangles her body around a pole during practice in Nanjing city, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, April 12, 2012. Sun started pole dancing classes in March 2012 after watching some videos on the Internet and finding pole dancing to be sexy, enchanting and able to fully showcase the charm of women. Sun performs various stunts despite several surgeries on her spinal column. She might be the oldest pole dancer in China. [Photo/CFP]

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Pole dancers gear up for competition in Tianjin 12 April 2016

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kwaigonegin said:

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, asked Heywood late last year to move a large sum of money abroad, and she became outraged when he demanded a larger cut of the money than she had expected due to the size of the transaction, the sources said.

at first I felt bad for the dude but then after reading this not so much anymore. Greed NEVER gets you anywhere.

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BEIJING, CHINA - APRIL 18: Chinese gymnast Chen Yibing (L) and retired diver Guo Jingjing (R) attend a Coca-Cola ceremony to mark 100-day countdown to London 2012 Olympic Games at National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on April 18, 2012 in Beijing, China. The opening ceremony of London 2012 Olympic Games will take place on July 27, 2012.

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BEIJING, CHINA - APRIL 18: Chinese people celebrate during a Coca-Cola ceremony to mark 100-day countdown to London 2012 Olympic Games at National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on April 18, 2012 in Beijing, China.

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A taxi driver washes his taxi at a China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) gas station in Hong Kong on April 18, 2012.

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Chinese homebuyers gather to check out proposed apartment projects at a property fair in Yichang, in central China's Hubei province on April 18, 2012. New home prices in two-thirds of China's major cities fell in March, the government said on April 18, as officials maintain policies to curb the property market after implementing several measures aimed at limiting runaway property prices for more than a year.

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Ho Sze (R), an elderly woman in her late 90s, reacts as she has her face cleaned by a family member at an elderly care home in Hong Kong on April 18, 2012. According to the World Health Organization, adults aged 65 and above will, for the first time, outnumber children under the age of 5 in the next five years, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month.

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Taiwan's Lin Yung-Chi poses with his invention, a protective equipment for high polluants or toxic job like agricultural pesticide spread during the opening day of the 40th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, on April 18, 2011. More than 789 exhibitors from 46 countries are present at one of the World's largest exhibition devoted to innovation from April 18th to 22th in Geneva.

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A pregnant woman walks down a street in Hong Kong on April 17, 2012. Hong Kong's next leader said he plans to ban pregnant mainlanders from giving birth in the city and deny their children residency rights, in a bid to ease pressure on local hospitals.

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Cosplay performers pose for a group photo during a break in Donghu Lake scenic zone of Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, April 14, 2012. Local animation association organized a cosplay show here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Hao Tongqian)

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A man carries a Starbucks logo sign after a corporate event at a hotel in Shanghai April 19, 2012. Starbucks Corp wants to make its mainland China expansion a family affair. The world's biggest coffee chain is opening cafes in China at a rate of one every four days in its quest to expand from about 570 shops today to more than 1,500 by 2015.

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A woman drinks a cup of Starbucks coffee as she leaves a store at Qianmen Commercial Street in central Beijing, April 19, 2012.

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Anti-Japan protesters chant slogans near the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong April 19, 2012. Tokyo's controversial governor wants to use public funds to buy islands disputed between Japan and China, prompting Beijing to denounce the plan as illegal and reassert its sovereignty. The islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, have long been the centre of maritime territorial disputes between China and neighbours The banner reads in Chinese, "Japan, get out from Diaoyu islands".

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Employees work on an assembly line of mini electric cars at a factory of Shandong Shifeng (Group) Co. Ltd. in Jinan, Shandong province April 6, 2012. Beijing has made a dismal start toward its ambitious goal of putting of 500, 000 hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) on China's roads by the end of 2015, rising to more than 5 million by 2020. Last year, a mere 8,159 were sold across the entire country, including those for government pilot programs for e-taxis and e-buses. Shifeng is the top player in the market, with about a 50 p ercent share. Shifeng delivered nearly 30,000 cars to its 200 dealer outlets across the country in 2011. Sales this year could hit 50,000, about a 13-fold increase over the level in 2008, the first full year of sales, said company vice president Lin Lianhua. Picture taken April 6, 2012.

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LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 18: Michael L. Jackson, USC Vice President for student affairs (L), escorts Fei Xiaohang and Qu Wangzhi (foreground), and KIn Meinan and Wu Xiyong, the parents of a pair of foreign students from China who were shot to death near the campus last week, were memorialized at a service in the Shrine Auditorium on April 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Victims Ming Qu and Ying Wu, engineering students at USC, were killed last Wednesday, April 11, 2012, as they were attacked while sitting in their parked car near campus.

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USC (University of Southern California) president C. L. Max Nikias bows before images of Chinese murder victims Ying Wu and Ming Qu before eulogizing the slain engineering students during a memorial service in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles April 18, 2012.

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USC students on their way to attend a memorial service on April 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California, for the two Chinese graduate students who were shot to death near campus last week. US authorities have offered $200,000 in reward money to find whoever killed the two students, after more funds were pledged on April 17. Los Angeles has a large Chinese and Chinese-American population, including many overseas students and certain areas of the city are known for frequent gun violence.

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Guangdong police have arrested 18 people who use fake ambulances to transfer patients. Ha Quan / for China Daily
Guangzhou police have arrested 18 people who were illegally transferring patients between hospitals and cities with fake ambulances. The fake ambulances had been transformed from ordinary vans using red crosses, sirens and medical equipment including stretchers, oxygen bottles and first-aid kits containing stethoscopes and disposable rubber gloves. Guangzhou Daily cited a police officer surnamed Zhang from the police department of Yuexiu district in Guangzhou saying the suspects disguised themselves as doctors and nurses.

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An overturned bus is seen at the site of a road accident on a national highway in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 18, 2012. More than 30 students were injured when their bus overturned on the way back from a school trip in Zhejiang Province on Wednesday afternoon, according to local authorities. (Xinhua/Zhang Peijian)

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