Claims of erratic behaviour by wife of purged Chinese leader

GU KAILAI, the wife of purged Chinese leader Bo Xilai, dressed as a military commander in the final days of the family’s rule in the southwestern city of Chongqing, as the rumour mill surrounding the Bo family continued to churn.

Police are investigating Ms Gu, a successful lawyer, on suspicion of murdering a former family friend, British businessman Neil Heywood, in a row over money.

She is alleged to have poisoned the Briton after he demanded an increased cut of a money transfer.

A few days after Mr Heywood died in November, Ms Gu strode into a meeting of police officials wearing a green People’s Liberation Army uniform with a major-general’s insignia.

It is not totally unusual that Ms Gu would wear a military uniform — construction workers wear army fatigues, students have to wear uniforms for the military training part of their studies, and Ms Gu’s father was Gu Jingsheng, a communist general renowned for his role in fighting Japanese invaders during the 1930s.

However, she also gave a rambling speech in which she told the startled officials that she was on a mission to protect the city’s police chief and Mr Bo’s close ally, Wang Lijun, the Reuters news agency reported, citing an anonymous source.

“First she said that she was under secret orders from the ministry of public security to effectively protect Comrade Wang Lijun’s personal safety in Chongqing,” said the source. “It was a mess,” the source said of Ms Gu’s speech, which circulated among some police and officials. “I reached the conclusion that she would be trouble.”

Mr Wang’s flight to the US consulate in Chengdu, where he sought sanctuary apparently in exchange for information about Mr Bo’s activities in Chongqing, prompted much of the recent political upheaval.