243 Chinese officials commit suicide

The incident of General Zhang Yang, former member of the Central Military Commission and Director of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission of China, hanging himself at his home on November 23 is currently becoming the focus of Chinese media, revealing many noteworthy issues...

Zhang Yang's death is becoming the focus of Chinese media attention.

Who is the Chinese general who committed suicide at his home?Did the Chinese general commit suicide to avoid punishment?China: Suicide during investigation is still handled by the partyWhy did Senior General Zhang Yang choose to hang himself?

Truong Duong - "two-faced man"

“Two-faced person” (lương mặt nhân) is the most used phrase, first appearing on November 28 on the official website of the “Liberation Military Newspaper” in a commentary signed by “Jun Zhengping” titled “Atrocious suicide to escape punishment, anti-corruption campaign continues”, emphasizing that Zhang Yang’s act of suicide to escape punishment was “humiliating” and calling him a “typical two-faced person”. The next day, Beijing Daily published an article “What kind of person is Zhang Yang?”, analyzing the behavior of a “typical two-faced person”.

The article quoted the assessment of “Liberation Military Intelligence”: “Zhang Yang is a high-ranking cadre of the party and the army, lost faith in ideals, party principles, lost respect for discipline and law, lost moral boundaries, on the podium and off the podium, had two faces in front and behind, shouted loyalty, acted corruptly, was a typical two-faced person”. The article affirmed: “Two-faced person is the most accurate description of Zhang Yang’s serious problem; the “two-faced” problem is shown through the following actions:

Eliminate the toxic remnants of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. Zhang Yang is the Head of the Leadership Team to Implement the Spirit of the Gutian Military Political Work Conference (October 2014); the core work of this team is to eliminate the toxic remnants of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou. The commentary by Jun Zhengping wrote: investigating Zhang Yang is an important component of comprehensively eliminating the toxic remnants of Guo and Xu. Notably, in addition to Zhang Yang, a Deputy Head of the Leadership Team to Implement the Spirit of the Gutian Conference, Liu Shengjie, Deputy Director of the Logistics Department, was also removed from his position as a member of the Military Commission's Discipline Inspection Commission. Before being "met and talked to", public documents show that Zhang Yang had criticized Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong 13 times; the first time was in September 2014, the last time was on January 20, 2017.

Bribery. Zhang Yang seriously violated discipline and the law, showing signs of committing the crimes of bribery, accepting bribes, and possessing extremely large assets that could not be explained. Not only accepting bribes but also giving bribes; as a key leader of the entire army's political work, this issue of Yang's made people afraid. During the time Zhang Yang was "organized to meet and talk", he was always allowed to stay at his private home. However, he disregarded the favor of the organization, using suicide as a means to escape punishment from party discipline and the law, which was a very evil act.

Zhang Yang committed suicide, how he will be handled is a matter of special public interest. On November 29, the Japanese newspaper Inspectorate published an article affirming that according to relevant legal regulations, if the suspect or defendant dies, the case under investigation will not be prosecuted, the deceased will not be prosecuted, but the evidence and assets determined to be obtained through violations of the law will be recovered by the court. In the two previous cases of Xu Caihou and Ren Ruanhou, the procedure for recovering income and assets obtained through violations of the law was applied.

Regarding Tu Tai Hau, on October 27, 2014, the Military Procuracy concluded the investigation and moved to prosecute the defendant Tu Tai Hau for accepting bribes; on March 15, 2015, Tu Tai Hau died in the hospital due to bladder cancer, the Military Procuracy decided not to prosecute, but to handle according to the law the assets obtained from accepting bribes.

Regarding Ren Nau Hou - former Vice Governor of Shanxi Province, on August 29, 2014, Hou was investigated and died 1 month later. 3 years later, on June 21, 2017, the Yangzhou City Procuratorate, Jiangsu issued a document requesting the confiscation of illegally acquired assets during his tenure, including: accepting bribes of 1.98 million yuan, embezzlement of 690 thousand yuan, 12.09 million yuan that could not be explained and many foreign currencies, items... On July 25, the Yangzhou City Court issued a decision to confiscate assets of 12.95 million yuan and foreign currencies worth more than 9.1 million yuan.

243 officials committed suicide

In the past, the phenomenon of Chinese officials committing suicide was rare, but since the anti-corruption campaign became more intense, more and more officials at all levels have chosen to commit suicide. According to the “New Beijing News”, from 2009 to August 2016, a total of 243 officials committed suicide. Although the suicides were not only caused by corruption but also by pressure from obstacles in promotion, illness and love affairs, but through research and analysis, the rate of officials committing suicide due to violations of discipline and the law has been increasing, especially after General Secretary Xi Jinping launched the anti-corruption campaign in 2012.

Regarding suicide methods, jumping from buildings and hanging are the most popular choices; the locations are usually workplaces, private homes, hotels or the suburbs. The fact that officials who make mistakes and make mistakes choose death often causes a stir in public opinion and is considered to be driven to the end of the road, having to "take death to atone for their sins". Through investigation, it was found that in addition to some officials who know that they cannot escape punishment by law, and have weak wills, they seek death themselves, but there are also some who use death to protect their illegal income, dying so that their relatives can live comfortably; quite a few others die to fulfill a group interest commitment, which is the "sacrificing the pawn to keep the car".

According to TPO