This article is from the archive of our partner .
If you've been following the Bo Xilai scandal, you've probably noticed some remarkably vague language surrounding key parts of the narrative, but this week much of it is becoming more specific, including what happened at the U.S. consulate where Bo Xilai's chief of police fled in February.
The New York Times' Steven Lee Myersa and Mark Landler report Wednesday about the chaos at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu when Bo's trusted police chief Wang Lijun fled there but was refused asylum, is the latest in a string of small scoops this week that have turned many of the blurry details in this case into a narrative one can almost follow. U.S. officials, it seems, didn't want to botch a sensitive moment in U.S.-China relations as Vice President Xi Jinping prepared to visit Washington. But they didn't want to turn Wang over to the security forces, loyal to Bo, that surrounded the embassy and demanded Wang. Eventually, they turned Wang over to a Beijing official. He's now charged with treason.
On Monday Reuters reported the motive for British businessman Neil Heywood's alleged murder was that he threatened to expose Bo and his wife Gu Kailai's attempt to wire money out of the country. On Tuesday Reuters had it that Bo's trusted police chief, Wang Lijun, fled to the embassy because Bo had tried to block Wang's investigation into Gu's involvement in Heywood's death, which Bo had approved days prior.