Charming the foreigners
As governor of Liaoning, Bo openly squabbled with Wen Shizhen, then-Party secretary of the province who was technically Bo’s boss, in another sign of his growing disdain for the established power structure and bureaucratic channels.
Then in 2004, Bo’s ambition, media savvy and flair for the dramatic were launched on to the global stage with his appointment as minister of commerce, a position that put him in charge of China’s strained trade relations with the West. In this role he conducted round after round of tortuous discussions with then-EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in the so-called “bra wars” over Chinese textile imports to Europe.
Lord Mandelson, known as the “prince of darkness” in the UK and considered a master spin doctor, more than met his match in Mr Bo, whose grandstanding and tough negotiating style soon became legendary.
On one occasion in 2005, Mandelson had invited western reporters to sit outside the negotiating room in a hotel in downtown Beijing in what appeared to be an attempt to apply pressure on Bo to agree to a deal.
But as the talks dragged into the early hours of the morning and as European press deadlines were approaching, Bo stormed out of the room with his entire entourage, leaving Mandelson sitting impotently in full view of the waiting journalists. Just as Bo apparently intended, the next day's headlines in Europe declared a breakdown in the discussions and the two sides went back to a negotiating table tilted slightly in China's favour.
Despite their battles, Mandelson “was very fond of” Bo, according to people who worked closely with him. After he left office, he flew to Chongqing to visit Bo on at least one occasion in 2011.
Although his ministerial salary was no more than Rmb120,000 a year ($19,000), Bo lived in a palatial family mansion in central Beijing and drove a late-model Jaguar, in addition to his chauffeured government car.
His wife had ostensibly given up her legal career by this point but their son was attending private schools in the UK charging fees of around $50,000 per year.
After Bo was removed from all his positions in April, 2012, investigations into publicly-disclosed corporate filings revealed large fortunes belonging to members of Bo’s extended family. These documents show that between them, Bo and Gu's brothers and sisters control property and assets worth at least $120m and people familiar with their business dealings say the family’s actual holdings are much larger than that.
Political analysts say one of the most significant consequences of Bo's downfall has been this scrutiny of his family's wealth and the questions it raises about the enormous fortunes accumulated by other Chinese leaders and their families.
As his influence on the world stage grew and his connections with the UK expanded, Bo began to be courted in earnest by members of the British establishment dealing with China.
One man who cultivated especially close ties with the Bo family was Charles – now Lord – Powell, a former aide to prime minister Margaret Thatcher and past president of the China-Britain Business Council who now works for the government promoting UK business in Asia.
On Guagua's urging, Bo Xilai once called up Powell and a number of other influential members of the British establishment to express dismay at having just learned that the British private school Eton was considered more prestigious than Harrow. Bo demanded that Powell pull some strings and have Guagua transferred immediately, an order Powell was unable to satisfy.
The Bo family also introduced Powell to Neil Heywood, their advisor on all things British up until that point, but people familiar with the matter say Lord Powell sometimes appeared to treat Heywood with disdain.
“There was an incredible effort by the British establishment to get close to Bo,” says Kerry Brown, head of the Asia programme at Chatham House, the UK thinktank. “Some of them no doubt thought of Mr Heywood as a tradesman's son from Harrow getting above his station and felt Bo Xilai should be dealing with the real establishment. You get the impression they were trying to nudge Heywood out of the way.”
In Powell’s case there may have been some professional rivalry involved, as Heywood on occasion worked for Hakluyt, a British “strategic intelligence” advisory firm, some of whose staff previously worked for the UK intelligence agency MI6. Powell is on the advisory board of a rival company, Diligence, which was set up in 2000 by former members of the British and American intelligence services.
The chairman of Diligence’s advisory board is Judge William Webster, the only man to serve as director of both the CIA and the FBI.
Lord Powell told the FT he had no ill feeling towards Heywood, who would frequently visit him during trips to London.
“I didn't do very much with [Heywood], but I was always perfectly happy to have a chat with him,” Powell said. “I saw him actually only 10 days before his death. I happened to be in Beijing and he rang up and asked if he could drop round for a cup of tea and we had a cup of tea in my hotel.”
William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, has publicly denied that Heywood was working “as an employee of the British government in any capacity” although he acknowledged Heywood was an occasional contact of the UK embassy in Beijing.
There has been persistent speculation in Chinese political circles that Heywood was in fact spying on the Bo family for the British and that he was murdered in retaliation when this was discovered.
Western diplomats and people familiar with the Bo family, Heywood and the investigation into his death, say they believe Heywood was not a full-time spy although he may have provided information to UK intelligence officers.
These people also say they do not believe Heywood was murdered because of any advisory work and in the trial of Gu Kailai and her accomplice there was no mention of this or any suggestion Heywood was anything other than a business consultant.
As Bo’s international fame increased, he began to gain a reputation abroad as a “western-style” politician who understood how to use the media and charm world leaders.
In stark contrast to most Chinese leaders, with their awkward manners and formal meeting style, Bo would greet foreign guests with a warm handshake, a huge smile and a bit of banter in English.
On more than one occasion, on meeting former Australian deputy Prime minister Mark Vaile, Bo described him to his face as “stubborn and bookish” before smoothing things over with a disarming chuckle.
“He was arrogant but he really impressed with his strong intellect,” said one veteran diplomat who worked closely with Bo. “It was clear he was going places and nobody ever thought that being commerce minister was the height of his ambitions.”
Bo would regularly hold meetings in his former home base of Dalian, where he acted as if he had never left and was still running the town.
Despite his charm, his imperious and undemocratic handling of delicate multilateral trade negotiations during a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in 2005 in Dalian riled many delegates from other countries.
But it was Bo’s own staff at the commerce ministry who bore the brunt of his capricious nature.
His famously gruelling working hours, his hot temper and his rough treatment of subordinates left officials who had to work with him seething.
One anecdote, recounted to the FT by a person familiar with the matter but impossible to verify, also shows Bo’s vindictive side. In 2005 or 2006 Bo wanted to tear down some historic buildings owned by the commerce ministry, a move opposed by cultural preservation officials who convinced a well-connected person to lobby Madame Wu Yi, the vice-premier in charge of commerce and Bo’s boss in the Communist party.
Wu put a halt to the demolition but not long after, the person who had lobbied her to preserve the buildings was arrested on corruption charges.
This person, the daughter of a senior military official, managed to use her own excellent political connections to get herself released. Yet two years later, when Bo was already in charge of Chongqing, the woman was arrested again after she was caught with heroin planted in her luggage at the city’s airport.
In an interesting parallel, prosecutors alleged during Gu's trial in August 2012 that Gu and Wang Lijun at one point discussed a similar plan to lure Heywood to Chongqing and then frame him in a narcotics raid. Wang apparently backed out of that plan and Gu eventually took matters into her own hands.
The woman arrested in Chongqing eventually managed to get herself released again but within Chinese political circles her experience is used as a cautionary tale to warn anyone thinking of tangling with Bo Xilai.
People who worked closely with Bo and Wu Yi say that Wu despised him. When the Communist party held its five-yearly congress to choose a new generation of leaders in 2007, she lobbied hard to block his promotion.
By most accounts, Bo was one of the leading contenders in 2007 for advancement to the nine-member Politburo standing committee which effectively rules China. But his father’s death in January that year reduced his political clout and staunch opposition from many serving and retired officials, including Premier Wen Jiabao and Madam Wu, ruined his chances.