bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Gu Kailai probably dreamed of a grand destiny for herself when she married the princeling Bo Xilai 26 years ago.
But the former high-flying lawyer, 53, is now under arrest, suspected of being involved in the murder of a British businessman.
The central government said late on Tuesday that she had been 'transferred to judicial authorities'.
It followed the discovery of 'evidence that pointed strongly' to her involvement in the death of Neil Heywood, 41, in November.
A source told the South China Morning Post that Gu was under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in Beijing before she was transferred to police custody. 
It is a spectacular plunge from grace for a woman who achieved notable successes in her legal career and married Bo, an heir apparent to membership of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee 
Her downfall became public in February when Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief and key Bo ally now under investigation himself, sought refuge in the US consulate in Chengdu.
Reuters reported that Wang angered Bo by claiming that Gu was involved in the death of Heywood, who was close to the couple's son Bo Guagua, and helped him to enrol at private schools in Britain.
Heywood - married to a Chinese national named Wang Lulu, with whom he had two children, aged 11 and seven - died in a hotel room in Chongqing soon afterwards. Days later he was cremated. 
Mainland authorities said Heywood died of a heart attack after a bout of heavy drinking.
But The Wall Street Journal reported allegations that Heywood had been poisoned after falling out with Gu, for whom he acted as a financial adviser.
Neither Bo, 62, or his wife have been seen in public since the middle of last month. 
Bo is currently under house arrest in his Beijing home, according to a source.
Official state news agency Xinhua reported he was being investigated for 'serious discipline violations'. On March 9, in his last meeting with the media, Bo described Gu as a stay-at-home mother who gave up her legal career two decades ago.
'She now basically just stays at home, doing some housework for me. I'm really touched by her sacrifice,' Bo told a news conference at the National People's Congress. 
Like her husband, Gu came from a revolutionary family. 
She is the youngest daughter of Gu Jingsheng, a communist veteran and the former deputy party secretary of the Xinjiang committee.
Bo's father, Bo Yibo, was a close friend of Gu Jingsheng, and published a eulogy in People's Daily after Gu Jingsheng's death in 2004.
After graduating from high school, Gu worked in a butcher's shop during the Cultural Revolution.
Chinese media reported she could 'slice meat with a great skill'.
In 1978, and despite failing her maths exams, Gu was enrolled at Peking University, one of the country's most prestigious institutions, where she studied law and international politics. 
Bo also enrolled there some years earlier, as a student of history.
But the pair first met in 1984 when she went on a research trip to Jin county near Dalian, Liaoning province, where Bo had taken a post as county party secretary, according to the state-run website people.com.cn.
'He was very much like my father, who was an extremely idealistic person,' Gu told the media. 
 She became Bo's second wife two years later and Bo Guagua - now studying at Harvard - was born the following year. 
When Bo became the mayor of Dalian, Gu moved there too, moving into a small apartment in which they lived until 1996.
Gu pursued her own legal career after the marriage, running a law practice in Dalian and later setting up the Kailai Law Firm in Beijing in 1995. 
She soon became one of China's most successful lawyers, particularly after she helped several Chinese companies in Dalian win a legal battle in the US in February 1997.
A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee in Mobile, Alabama, had successfully sued the Chinese companies for US$1 million after accusing them of attempting to steal trade secrets and of defrauding an American company. Gu succeeded in having the judgment set aside.
Gu shared the experiences in book entitled Uphold Justice in America. 
In it, she said the Dalian justice bureau asked her firm to take the case even though her husband was the mayor. She said later in an interview with China Reading Weekly in 1998 that she did not charge for the case, but was simply 'looking for justice'. The Wall Street Journal quoted Denver lawyer Ed Byrne - who was hired by Gu to represent the Chinese companies in the lawsuit - as saying: 'I was very impressed with her. She was very sharp, and fortunately her English was very good.' 
In 2001, after Bo was promoted to governor of the northeastern province of Liaoning, the Kailai Law Firm changed its name to Ang Dao. 
There is little public evidence of Gu's activities after her husband became Commerce Minister in 2004 and Chongqing party chief in 2007.
On the Beijing city justice department's website, Gu is still registered as a lawyer for Ang Dao though she has not appeared in any case since 2001.
Perhaps what her husband said was true - she had indeed become a stay-at-home mother who had given up her legal career.
1984 
The year Gu Kailai first met her future husband Bo Xilai, on a research trip to Dalian, where Bo was county party secretary



Why I miss the Chinese premier’s annual press conference at the close of the country’s ‘two sessions’

China’s Ministry of Commerce: what is Mofcom and what is it responsible for?

Chinese city boss fired after slapping subordinate in public

‘Let us go home’: US relative of corrupt China security chief pleads with Xi Jinping

Bo Xilai

Legal eagle's fall from grace