A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel Read online

  Fang Hong, an employee in Chongqing’s Fuling district, posted a satirical Weibo comment, calling the lawsuit against Li a “pile of shit.” Police detained Fang and sent him to a Reeducation through Labor Camp for one year. According to Fang’s lawyer, more than 10,000 Chongqing residents had been sent to labor camps by Wang Lijun.

  Between 2009 and 2011, court papers say Wang used the anticrime campaign to terrorize the business community by branding legitimate private businesspeople as mobsters. “The party needs to tie a timed bomb around your waist to make sure you obey orders,” Wang said to a private entrepreneur who was a delegate to the Municipal People’s Congress and vowed to collect petitions calling for Wang to resign. Wang had him arrested on charges that he colluded with organized crime, and his assets were confiscated. “I could have him executed if I want,” Wang remarked. In May 2011, one of Wang’s friends held a fundraiser for a scholarship that sponsored policemen’s studies abroad. Wang advised his subordinates to gather some local entrepreneurs at police headquarters for a “meeting” and blatently solicited money from them. At the end of the meeting, the officer collected 30 million yuan. Wang called this practice “robbing the rich to help the poor.” Using Russian president Vladimir Putin as an example, Wang was quoted as saying, “If there are ten people, four are wealthy and six poor. We only need to get rid of two wealthy ones. The other two would be intimidated and voluntarily give their money away. The six poor folks would applaud our actions.”

  The Washington Post reported that the public security bureau confiscated the assets—estimated at US $700 million—of Li Jun, once one of the richest men in Chongqing. Li now lives as an exile in Canada. Eight of his relatives are languishing in a Chinese jail and his business empire is under police control.

  The businessman, originally from Hubei province, moved to Chongqing in 1984 as a soldier in the army and after five years of service, set up a small trading business and then a petrol station. Other ventures followed, including a restaurant, a karaoke parlor, and a sauna, all of which, police said, were connected with organized crime.

  Li stated that his arrest was related to a real estate transaction. In 2008, he had purchased a plot of undeveloped military land in Chongqing. The deal had supposedly offended a senior military officer who was a friend of Bo Xilai and had intended to sell the property to a relative. In December 2009, Li was picked up by police, who beat him repeatedly during questioning. Li said he was kept chained for days to a “tiger bench”—a metal chair specially designed to maximize pain—and his arms and legs were shackled while security agents pummeled him and demanded he confess. Held for three months at the secret “Militia Training Camp,” Li was released after agreeing to pay US $6.3 million in penalties. In October 2010, while on a business trip to Chengdu, Li was tipped off that he was about to be arrested again. He fled the next morning to Hong Kong, then later to Canada.

  Meanwhile, Wang was accused of sexually abusing female police officers. In 2010, as he sought to reform the image of the police in Chongqing, he formed a “special police patrol unit” consisting of eighty young female university graduates, whose average age was twenty-four and average height was 5 feet 7 inches. They drove Volvo cars and dressed up in uniforms designed by Wang. Court papers indicated that Wang had sexually assaulted eight of the female officers. In addition, a police officer in Tieling claimed on the Internet in April 2012 that Wang had raped a policewoman while he worked in his home city. The policewoman, who subsequently became pregnant from the rape, filed a lawsuit against Wang but the local court refused to handle the case out of fear of Wang Lijun.

  In 2011, a former police officer in Chongqing said Wang seemed invincible, “His ego ballooned. With Bo on his side, Wang Lijun was ready to attack anyone who dared criticize him.”

  With such unchecked power vested in him and so many police officers, government officials, and businesspeople he had unfairly targeted, Wang’s downfall was inevitable. As the Chinese proverb says, “The mantis seizes the locust but does not see the yellow bird which is ready to snatch him from behind.”

  THE SLAP IN THE FACE

  IN MAY 2011, Bo Xilai made Wang Lijun Chongqing’s deputy mayor, but Wang knew that the position carried no substantial power unless he joined the Municipal Party Standing Committee, the city’s highest decision-making body. He actively lobbied both of the Bos for a promotion. He also invited visiting senior leaders to tour his “Smashing Black Campaign Victory Exhibition” and aggressively sought their praises, which he later used lavishly in his police newsletters.

  Senior leaders in Beijing might feel obligated to utter positive remarks about the “Smashing Black” campaign, but many were wary, and shuddered at the prospect that Bo’s program could expand nationally and jeopardize their business interests. By the summer of 2011, more than 5,000 people had been detained or arrested. Several victims’ relatives had sent petitions to senior leaders recounting horror stories about the practices of torture, forced confessions, and confiscated assets. Many of the complaints and petitions reached Wang Yang, the party secretary of Guangdong province, and He Guoqiang, head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, both predecessors of Bo in Chongqing. Many officials whom Wang had purged, imprisoned, or executed were also protégés or former colleagues of Wang Yang and He Guoqiang. However, the two senior leaders felt constrained and helpless because Bo Xilai was too powerful to tackle. They quietly bided their time.

  An opportunity came in 2011 when the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection received anonymous letters from citizens in Tieling accusing Wang and his friends of embezzling public funds. One letter alleged that 450,000 yuan budgeted for construction were unaccounted for when Wang was police chief in Tieling.

  He Guoqiang gave permission to his staff to act, and the move was carefully calculated—investigation would specifically target Wang’s friends. Because Wang was far removed from Tieling, he wouldn’t be able to intervene easily. If Wang’s friends were found guilty—very few survived an extensive investigation by the commission—the convictions would send a warning to Wang so he would think twice before going after his political opponents in Chongqing. The source called the strategy “striking at the mountain to scare the tigers.” But nobody expected the mountain would collapse, burying the tigers alive.

  In June 2011, a friend from Tieling called Wang to say that “fires” had broken out in his backyard. The word “fire” was used figuratively to indicate trouble; a corruption scandal had erupted in Wang’s home city. The Tieling police chief had been taken away earlier in the month by officials from Beijing. The detention was based on allegations that the Tieling police chief had taken bribes and embezzled funds allocated for a new office building for the Tieling public security department. A week later, six other officials, all of whom were Wang’s friends and loyal supporters, were also under investigation.

  The office building was designed under Wang’s supervision, but the actual construction work started after Wang’s departure in 2003. Even though Wang received reassurance from his friends in Tieling and Beijing that it was an isolated case and he was not implicated, Wang felt insecure and became concerned, especially after relatives of his detained friends arrived in Chongqing seeking his help.

  Wang inevitably thought of Bo Xilai and expressed his concern. With the princeling’s extensive support network in Beijing, Wang was certain that Bo could exert his influence to reverse the situation in his hometown and rescue his friends. Moreover, Wang felt Bo owed him. He had worked wholeheartedly to advance Bo’s political career; it was because of his association with Bo that the head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was against him.

  What Wang didn’t know was that Bo rarely stuck out his own neck for friends, especially someone like Wang, who was simply a lackey, not his equal. More important, Bo did not want to be involved in messy deals that could stand in the way of his upcoming bid for the Politburo Standing Committee. Sources in Chongqing said Bo remained unco
mmitted to Wang’s request.

  Wang was deeply disappointed and hurt. Growing up in a northern culture, which places friendship above sibling love, Wang saw his inability to save his friends in Tieling as a tremendous loss of face, and this drew attention to his waning influence. At the same time, he saw Bo’s rebuff as a sign of distrust in him.

  In July 2011, Wang watched the deepening investigation in Tieling helplessly from afar—more police officers were arrested and detained. Meanwhile, in several of the official news reports about senior leaders’ visits to Chongqing, there was only brief mention of the “Smashing Black” campaign. Sensing that many in Beijing might have taken offense at his signature programs in Chongqing, Wang became paranoid. One of his colleagues said Wang suffered from severe insomnia. Adding insult to injury, Bo Xilai led a “Red Song Singing” troupe to Beijing, and no one from the Politburo Standing Committee showed up. The cold shoulder confirmed Wang’s suspicion that Bo’s policies lacked support in Beijing and that Bo’s political future might not be as secure he had anticipated. Wang was said to be secretly concerned that Bo Xilai could eventually shift all the blame on him, making him a sacrificial lamb if mounting complaints about the excesses and abuses during Wang’s anti-crime initiatives jeopardized Bo’s bid for the Politburo Standing Committee. Wang felt the urgent need to secure his political future and protect the more than sixty police officers he had transferred from northeast China to Chongqing.

  Wang reached out to cultivate relations with other senior leaders, including Li Keqiang, China’s premier-in-waiting who belonged to a different political faction. A princeling who is now a businessman in Beijing said Wang had met Li Keqiang when the latter was party secretary in Liaoning province in 2004.

  Knowing that Li Keqiang and several Politburo members felt threatened by Bo’s soaring political ambition, Wang secretly taped many of Bo’s private meetings where he discussed his political plans. Wang allegedly fed them to some senior leaders.

  In one conversation, Bo compared the current Chinese president to a weak and spoiled emperor in the Han Dynasty, called former president Jiang Zemin the dowager in the Qing Dynasty, who had ruled China behind the bamboo curtain until the dynasty collapsed, and the president-in-waiting as an incompetent crown prince in the Han Dynasty. The actual existence of this conversation cannot be verified but Bo Xilai’s alleged remarks were widely distributed on the Web, souring Bo’s relations with his peers in Beijing and fueling speculation that Bo was conspiring to usurp power from the senior leadership.

  On November 15, the death of English businessman Neil Heywood offered a wisp of hope for Wang Lijun. Based on initial media reports in April 2012, Wang had rushed over to the Lucky Holiday Hotel after receiving a call from the hotel’s general manager and had briefly examined Heywood’s body. Given that the deceased was a foreigner, Wang had assigned four of his trusted police officers to investigate the case. From evidence collected at the hotel room, Wang Lijun said investigators concluded that it was a homicide and Bo’s wife was a key suspect. “After coming to Chongqing, I visited Gu Kailai’s home often, and I thought she treated me quite well,” said Wang Lijun in his testimony. “I knew if the case was treated as a homicide, it would be devastating to her. However, to avoid antagonism with Gu Kailai, I shunned the case.” With Wang’s approval, police investigators covered up Gu’s involvement in Heywood’s death.

  On November 16, the Chongqing public security bureau ruled the cause of Heywood’s death as alcohol overdose and persuaded Heywood’s widow to accept the verdict. Thus, Heywood was cremated without an autopsy. Before the cremation, an official at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Wang had secretly drawn some blood from Heywood’s body and told his aide to store the sample at a secure location.

  As the case was settled, a source familiar with Wang’s investigation said Wang began to press Gu Kailai, urging her to lobby Bo Xilai for help with Wang’s friends in Tieling as payback for his cover-up and silence on Heywood’s death. Gu willingly complied and lied to Wang, telling him that Bo had promised to give him a promotion. As a matter of fact, Gu did pester her husband with Wang’s request, but Bo refused and even became angry with Wang.

  In December 2011, Wang found out about Gu Kailai’s lie. At the same time, the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission had completed the investigation of Wang’s Tieling friends and turned them over to the local court. The news unnerved him. Wang probably saw that his enemies at the commission were using the trials to eventually get at him. Realizing that Gu held no sway over Bo, he needed to come up with a new plan to salvage the situation.

  A top Hong Kong businessman who lives in Chongqing disclosed to me that Wang had actually disguised himself as an old man and sneaked into the visa section of the British Consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou in early December 2011 to inquire about the possibility of political asylum, but consulate officials ignored him. The businessman, who claimed to have heard the news from a reliable source inside the Chongqing government, did not know if Wang had revealed his true identity at the consulate. “Wang was fearful that his political enemies would get him and he probably wanted to use Heywood’s death as a ticket for asylum.”

  In mid-December, Gu Kailai, worried that Wang Lijun could betray her, reached out to the deputy police chief, asking him to destroy evidence without Wang’s knowledge. Gu’s unilateral move upset Wang. When their relations worsened, Wang decided to take a gamble. Revealing Gu Kailai’s murder of Heywood to Bo, Wang forced Bo to deal with him. Wang was certain that Bo would consent to his previous request for help with his friends in Tieling. He would also demand a promotion. According to court papers, Wang shared his plan with members of his inner circle—officers and sworn brothers he had brought from his home city—before his meeting with Bo. They pledged ultimate loyalty to Wang, addressing him as “Teacher.”

  On January 28, the last day of the weeklong Chinese New Year celebration, Wang held a private meeting with Bo. According to leaked testimony by Xu Ming, a close friend of Bo’s, Wang presented Bo with evidence that would link Gu Kailai to Heywood’s death. Wang also said officers on the investigative team had submitted their resignations because of the pressure to hide the truth. To protect Bo Xilai’s political future, Wang said he was willing to bend his principles and help out. He allegedly told Bo, “As far as I’m concerned, the case is over.” Bo was reportedly shocked by the news. At the end of the meeting, Bo said he was thankful and praised Wang for his “loyalty.” Wang later told his friends that his talk with Bo had gone “very well.”

  After Wang Lijun left, Bo immediately went to his wife to confirm the story. Gu reportedly denied poisoning Heywood, claiming that Wang Lijun had framed her for murder. She also confided in Bo that Wang Lijun had repeatedly pressured her to talk Bo into helping with his friends in Tieling and granting him a spot on the Municipal Party Standing Committee.

  The next day, Bo called Wang and the deputy chief into his office. Calling Wang an “ungrateful bastard,” he accused the former police chief of plotting against his wife as well as against him. When Wang argued back, Bo flew into a rage and slapped Wang in the face, ordering him to leave the room. Wang left with blood on his lips.

  Wang was said to be deeply hurt and mortified by the face slap, which in Chinese culture is considered the worst insult to a person’s dignity, made even worse by the fact that it was delivered in front of a junior colleague, the deputy police chief.

  According to a police officer in Chongqing during a phone interview:

  Wang Lijun, a man of humble origins, was sensitive to how others, especially princelings like Bo Xilai, treated him. Over the years, as he gradually built his career, Wang meticulously cultivated his image as a national hero. He cherished his image like a peacock does its plumes. The unexpected slap from Bo Xilai was a terrible affront to a tough Mongolian man.

  The slap was a wake-up call and a reality check. He saw clearly that he was merely Bo Xilai’s hound dog. When he is no
longer of any value or becomes a liability for his master, he could be kicked out and put to death to be served at someone else’s dinner table. The slap shattered the last shreds of his illusions about dignity.

  After leaving Bo’s office, Wang Lijun immediately ordered the four police investigators to re-create Neil Heywood’s case file. A police officer later testified in court:

  We were asked to re-obtain testimonies from witnesses; properly protect key material evidence, including the blood extracted from Neil Heywood’s heart; and reorganize the evidence and documents regarding the suspicion that Gu Kailai may have murdered Neil Heywood. We spent several days making the file. Wang Lijun asked us to keep the file separately and store it in a safe place. I knew something had gone wrong and he had a personal purpose in starting the case.

  Realizing that they were up against the party chief of Chongqing, one of the most influential politicians in China, two investigators suggested that Wang Lijun inform the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing about Heywood’s murder. Wang adamantly declined, citing that he had other plans in mind.

  As a shrewd politician, Wang did not want to lose what he had accomplished over the past twenty-eight years. He suppressed his anger from the humiliating slap and wrote a letter of apology to both Bo and Gu, pledging his loyalty. Wang also blamed Bo’s chief of staff, who was said to dislike Wang intensely, for instigating the conflicts. However, the apology letter did not help and the situation soon became irreversible.