Neil Heywood death: how news of an Old Harrovian's murder went straight to Barack Obama

Telegraph - UK ^ | April 22, 2012 | David Eimer in Dalian, Jason Lewis and Josie Ensor

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Mr Obama was briefed immediately on the suspected poisoning of the 41 year-old, which Chinese officials are linking to Mr Heywood’s powerful political allies, when American diplomats were told of the murder allegation.

Gu Kailai, Mr Heywood’s former business partner and the wife of Bo Xilai, a senior politician who had been tipped for the highest political office, is suspected of ordering the Briton’s murder in a case at the centre of a political storm in China. The couple have disappeared from sight as the Communist Party attempts to regain stability.......

Mr Obama was informed of suspicions over Mr Heywood’s death within hours of a Chinese police chief walking into an American consulate and telling officials that the Briton was murdered.

Security guards surrounded the consulate as diplomats sought advice from their superiors in Washington.

Mr Obama learnt that Mr Heywood was being described as a murder victim before British officials told William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, about the development.

Sources in Washington last night said that for the American president to be so quickly informed of the death of a British citizen was almost unprecedented.

“This was a very high official with extraordinary intelligence,” John Tkacik, who worked for the state department in China for 20 years, said of Wang Lijun, the head of Chongqing police.

“In all of my experience, I can’t recall its equal.”

America is increasingly being drawn into the claims of murder and corruption that have rocked the Chinese establishment.......

[iopscusa]

Some detail here: “Things That Make You Go Hmmm - Such As A Power Struggle (To The Death) Within China’s Power Elite”,
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/things-make-you-go-hmmm-such-power-struggle-death-within-chinas-power-elite

[Vaduz]

May very well be corrupt and he hates this country,note actions.

[redhead]

filing this one under, “Things That Make You Go, Hmmmm...”

[livius]

I’ve always known that Bambi hates this country but I’m beginning to realize that he’s much more personally corrupt than I had thought.

All of the things that have been happening lately...such as the GSA and the Secret Service scandals...are much more easily understood if you remember the very accurate saying that “a fish rots from the head.”

[spetznaz]

Any way you look at it, it was the biggest mistake of his life (aside from telling anyone what he knew). Had he gone to the Brits, he’d most likely be in British hands now.

I have to respectfully disagree. The man was a seasoned veteran of both Chinese law enforcement and the Chinese political milieu, and for him to go to the US embassy must have been a very calculated decision considering the stakes at hand were, for him, potentially life or death. Furthermore, looking at the British Government and it's actions over the last decade and a half (one instance being the circumstances in which Royal Navy sailors were captured by the Iranians a few years back, and in particular British gov response to that capture) I would say that the chances of the British whisking him away to safety must have been substantially less than that of the Americans. The man made a good call, it is just that the odds were not with him that day.

It may be said that American influence with the Chinese has waned, but it is still greater than that of any other country (and far greater than that of Britain). If the US chose not to save him the British Government would not have done any better - they may actually have given an apology on top. I'd flee to a French embassy before a British one, although with Sarkozy possibly being kicked out even that option may not work for long. The US embassy, in a Chinese situation, is possibly the only embassy in China the Chinese authorities respect.

[nuconvert]

Problem is, he had no chance of being saved by the Obama White House 7 months before the elections. They aren’t going to risk a dust-up with the Chinese, especially now.

I think he had a chance of being brought to England for further questioning, had he divulged some of his story and made the rest of it dependent upon exiting China.

Obama should have turned him over to the Brits instead of putting him back on the streets.

[piasa]

Yes, Hakluyt, like the guys trying to recruit Papadopoulos

[piasa]

Hakluyt, same as Brennan...

[piasa]

Clinton Turned Away High-Level Chinese Defector to Assist Beijing Leaders
9/20/2016, 5:38:27 PM · by LRoggy · 29 replies
Free Beacon ^ | 9/6/16 | Bill Gertz
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton turned away a high-ranking Chinese defector who sought political asylum after the communist police chief sought refuge in a U.S. consulate in southwestern China four years ago. Critics say Clinton’s handling of the defection of Wang Lijun, a close aide to a regional Communist Party leader, was a blunder and lost opportunity for U.S. intelligence to gain secrets about the leaders of America’s emerging Asian adversary. Instead of sheltering Wang and granting him political asylum, Clinton agreed to turn him over to Chinese authorities in Beijing, and claimed he was not qualified for American...

[piasa]

bump