英商海伍德(Neil Heywood)，這個在薄熙來垮台事件中扮演一個舉足輕重的人物，生前似乎是個不起眼的角色。就是一個英國人和權傾一時的中央政治局委員結交，我想大抵是打著薄的名號在赴中國做生意的英國人圈子裡招搖撞騙，和打點一些「不便之處」的人吧。在特權當道與權貴資本思想主導下的中國這種人應該不少；事實上，也有滿多台灣人在中國做這種「顧問」生意。
做這種生意的人叫甚麼呢？以國籍言，海伍德就是「英商」；以功能別而言，是「仲介」或「代辦」；那以行業別而言，大概是介於「企管顧問」與「詐騙集團」之間吧。
20 April 2012 Last updated at 11:20 GMT
Expat death in China: Who was Neil Heywood?
Neil Heywood had lived in China since the 1990s and was a fluent Mandarin speaker
The death of the British businessman Neil Heywood in China has sparked a murder investigation involving the wife of a disgraced politician, and has left the country's Communist Party reeling from its worst scandal in decades.
But who was Mr Heywood and how had he become involved with the powerful Bo family in China before his death?
When Neil Heywood was found dead in a hotel room in the south-western city of Chongqing in November, reports initially said the 41-year-old business consultant had died of alcohol poisoning and his body was cremated, without a post-mortem examination.
But after friends raised doubts saying he drank only occasionally, the UK government asked the Chinese authorities to reopen the investigation.
Unconfirmed reports in China have since suggested Mr Heywood may have died from cyanide poisoning and Gu Kailai, the wife of sacked Communist Party official Bo Xilai along with a family "orderly", have been detained on suspicion of murder.
Mr Bo was previously one of China's most popular politicians and a possible contender for the leadership later this year.
Now the political situation in China is in disarray and it remains to be seen exactly how Mr Heywood was involved with such a powerful family.
Born in 1970, Mr Heywood enjoyed a privileged education at Harrow School and went on to study international relations at Warwick University.
Friendship forged
According to the New York Times, friends described him as "charming but elusive", and "a maverick since his school days". They recalled him travelling across the US in a campervan and crossing the Atlantic on a yacht.
Mr Heywood had been a resident in China since the early 1990s where he learned fluent Mandarin in Beijing, met and married his Chinese wife Wang Lulu, and started a business career.
The father-of-two worked as a consultant to foreign businesses seeking investment in China.
The extent of Neil Heywood's connections with Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai remain unclear
He set up several companies, advised clients including Aston Martin, and is reported to have done work for Hakluyt & Co - a strategic information consultancy founded by former members of MI6.
Speculation that Mr Heywood was an undercover agent was recently dismissed by the British journalist Tom Reed, who knew him over the last few years and had met him shortly before he died.
It was while living in the north-eastern port city of Dalian in the mid-1990s that Mr Heywood met the local mayor, Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai, a lawyer.
A source close to the Bo family told the BBC's Beijing correspondent Martin Patience that Mr Heywood was a friend of Bo Xilai but denied there were any business dealings between the two.
Gu Kailai had connections to a law firm in Dorset and worked in the US.
In 2000, Gu Kailai came to Britain so her son Guagua could go to public school. The younger Bo was later admitted to Balliol College, at Oxford University. While at Oxford Mr Heywood helped him arrange a ball, said our correspondent, and the pair were known to meet when My Heywood was back in Britain.
By 2007, Bo Xilai was appointed Communist Party chief of Chongqing. While the full extent of Mr Bo and Mr Heywood's association is not clear, their relationship became strained by 2010, according to some reports.
In the same year, Mr Heywood failed to secure a UK passport for his wife through the consulate in China. The BBC understands now the UK would allow his widow to enter the country if she wished.
Writing in the Times, journalist Tom Reed said Mr Heywood had once been "worried" about a rift with Mr Bo.
"He even considered fleeing China with his family," wrote Mr Reed. But by the time the businessman met him for dinner in November, "most evidently, there was no sense of fear".
Widow 'suffering'
However, another unnamed friend told the Wall Street Journal Mr Heywood had passed documents relating to Mr Bo to a lawyer in Britain as an "insurance policy". No such files have surfaced and the newspaper's other sources knew nothing of the records.
Reuters has reported the businessman had threatened to expose a plan by Gu Kailai to move money abroad, according to two sources with knowledge of the police investigation.
"Heywood told her 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," one source told the news agency.
But the source close to the Bo family told the BBC's Martin Patience that allegations against the family were "preposterous" and claims were part of a smear campaign against the family.
The source said the family were "devastated" by Mr Heywood's death.
Mr Heywood returned to the party chief's region of Chongqing in November, and was later found dead.
Ann Heywood, Mr Heywood's 74-year-old mother, who lives in south London, said the news of his death had been a "total shock".
And his widow Wang Lulu, speaking outside her home in a gated community near the outskirts of Beijing, told the BBC she was "sorry" she could not speak about the death, but was too "sad".
The BBC's Michael Bristow said a close friend described how Wang Lulu was "suffering", especially because she had to bring up her son and daughter. They have UK passports and attend an international school in Beijing. Their mother was last seen in Britain at her husband's memorial service at St Mary's Church, in Battersea in December.
For now she remains living at the family home in the exclusive Western-style setting with her children. Our correspondent said Mr Heywood's much-loved S-type Jaguar was still in the drive.
Prime Minister David Cameron has raised the death with a senior Chinese Communist Party official at Downing Street and offered China "any necessary assistance" in its investigation.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee has demanded to know why Britain did not intervene sooner over the death of Mr Heywood.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary William Hague defended the handling of the case by the Foreign Office.
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