This week, senior forensic scientist Wang Xuemei published a blog post challenging the official explanation for the death of British businessman Neil Heywood. Gu Kailai, whose husband Bo Xilai will now face charges related to the case, was said at her trial to have poisoned Heywood with cyanide, but Wang declared that the evidence did not support this conclusion, asking “who had the most to gain from Neil Heywood’s death?”
The original blog post was quickly removed, but a cached version survives. On Friday, Wang put up another post explaining why she had spoken out. From a partial translation by Josh Chin at China Real Time:
As a forensics examiner in the supreme legal supervisory body of a great country that accounts for one-fifth of the world’s population, my life’s value at this point in time consists in resolutely examining and raising questions about possibly incorrect causes of death that fall within the scope of my official duties. It consists in snuffing out human errors that could result in disastrous desecration of the souls of dead men and in being a sanitation worker who does her utmost to quickly clean away the spiritual trash that pollutes people’s hearts and sullies social morals.
…No individual, no group, no organization can use me, Wang Xuemei, to speak the lies they want to speak or commit the sins they want to commit, because I’m a professional who is deeply loyal to the souls of the dead and who acts in accordance with what Heaven decrees.
