New | Anti-graft scholar calls for closing of suicide ‘loophole’ used by corrupt officials

An anti-corruption expert at China’s top school for party cadres has called for corrupt officials to be prevented from “escaping justice” by killing themselves.

There has been a spate of suicides by officials under investigation for corruption, with at least 30 having killed themselves so far this year, according to researchers at Shanghai’s East China Normal University and Beihang University. Just this month, a senior official in Inner Mongolia, a Nanjing district party chief, and a Hainan county official have all killed themselves.

“Officials have even committed suicide after they were placed under investigation or been prosecuted in court,” Lin writes. “In such cases, suicide has become a tool for corrupt officials to escape the disciplinary investigation and litigation procedure.”

Lin argues that since prosecutions are dropped when a suspect dies, and since no one can be declared guilty unless found so by a court, “death has turned out to be a way for corrupt officials […] to escape from being convicted of their crimes”.

While death may seem a greater punishment than imprisonment, Lin points out that by killing themselves, officials suspected of corruption “not only preserve their titles and honour, but also preserve the material gains they have made for their families, since their illegal income will no longer be confiscated.”