Nor have officials said anything about the death in November in a Chongqing hotel room of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who reportedly was sometimes a fixer for the Bo family.

ECONOMIST: Uncertain politics

The Hilton Hotel in Chongqing in western China was briefly shut down recently and stripped of its star rating.

FORBES

She apparently poisoned him with cyanide last November in a hotel room in Chongqing, the region of which her husband was then party chief.

ECONOMIST: Chinese justice

Those concerns apparently flared anew when he was summoned to Chongqing and left alone in his hotel, according to the other friend's account.

WSJ: Fearful Final Hours for Briton Who Died in China

Mr. Heywood was found dead in November in his hotel room in the Chinese city of Chongqing, where Mr. Bo was party chief until he was dismissed from that post in March.

WSJ: U.K. Raises Brit's Death in China Talks

The Xinhua report said that a Bo family aide, Zhang Xiaojun, who stood trial with Ms. Gu, also confessed, saying in his testimony that he had escorted Mr. Heywood from Beijing to Chongqing where the Briton checked into the Nanshan Lijing Holiday hotel on Nov. 13, 2011.

WSJ: China Says Gu Confesses to Murdering Briton