Gu Kailai
| Gu Kailai | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 谷开来 |
| Born | 15 November 1958 |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Other names | Horus L. Kai Bogu Kailai (薄谷开来) |
| Alma mater | Peking University |
| Occupation | Attorney businesswoman |
| Criminal charge | Murder of Neil Heywood |
| Criminal penalty | Death sentence with reprieve→Life imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Imprisoned |
| Spouse(s) | Bo Xilai (m. 1986) |
| Children | Bo Guagua |
| Parent(s) | |
| Gu Kailai | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 谷开来 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 谷開來 | ||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 薄谷开来 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 薄谷開來 | ||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Gǔ Kāilái |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Bógǔ Kāilái |
Gu Kailai (born 15 November 1958) is a Chinese former lawyer and businesswoman. She is the second wife of former Politburo member Bo Xilai, one of China's most influential politicians until he was stripped of his offices in 2012. In August 2012, Gu was convicted of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood and was given a suspended death sentence.
Gu is the youngest of five daughters of General Gu Jingsheng, a prominent revolutionary in the years before the Chinese Communist Party took power. General Gu held various government positions during early Communist rule but was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution. Gu Kailai herself was also punished, being forced to work in a butcher shop and a textile factory.
Gu met Bo Xilai in 1984 while on a field trip looking into environmental art in Jin County, Liaoning, where he was the Communist Party secretary. The couple have one son, Bo Kuangyi, known as Guagua, who studied at Harrow School, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Gu Kailai gained a degree in law and then a masters in international politics from Peking University. She went on to become an accomplished lawyer founding the Kailai law firm in Beijing. In the course of her career, she was involved in several high-profile cases, and is suggested to have been the first Chinese lawyer to win a civil suit in the United States, where she represented several Dalian-area companies involved in a dispute in Mobile, Alabama. She is also the author of several books.
After visiting the United States, Kailai ridiculed the U.S. justice system as inept, writing "They can level charges against dogs and a court can even convict a husband of raping his wife," she wrote. Gu wrote that, "We don't play with words and we adhere to the principle of 'based on facts,'...You will be arrested, sentenced and executed as long as we determine that you killed someone."
In March 2012, Gu became embroiled in a national scandal after her husband's deputy, Wang Lijun, sought refuge at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu. It was rumored that Wang presented evidence of a corruption scandal, whereby Bo sought to impede a corruption investigation against Gu. Specifically, Wang stated that Gu had been involved in a business dispute with British businessman Neil Heywood, who died in Chongqing under disputed circumstances; Wang alleged he had been poisoned. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wang may have fallen out of favor with Bo for discussing the Heywood case.
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Wikipedia