Director of Chinese aerospace company leaps to his death in Hong Kong
Li Guo-lei, executive of China Aerospace Industrial, faced investigation on mainland, wife says
A Hong Kong-based executive of a subsidiary of the nation’s top aerospace company leaped to his death in Kwun Tong yesterday, a police source said.
Police confirmed that a man fell from a Kwun Tong office and was declared dead at the scene. He was reportedly heard speaking on his mobile phone telling his wife to take care of their daughter before he jumped.
Officers were called after colleagues saw Li Guo-lei, 49, standing outside the 19th floor office of the China Aerospace Centre in Hoi Bun Road around 2pm. He was declared dead at the scene.
A police source said Li, a Hong Kong ID card holder, came to the city several years ago and his wife told officers he was being investigated by mainland Chinese authorities. His wife, 45, arrived from Beijing early this month.
Li was a director of China Aerospace Industrial Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Aerospace International Holdings, itself a Hong Kong-listed arm of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
The state-owned CASC is involved in many of China’s space programmes, including the development and production of Long March rockets and the Shenzhou spacecrafts, as well as strategic missiles.
It is not clear which mainland authorities Li’s wife referred to, but her comments followed several investigations into senior executives of mainland companies in Hong Kong.
In March, the Communist Party’s anti-graft agency announced a re-organisation, which for the first-time explicitly put central government agencies in Hong Kong and Macau under its portfolio.
Last week, Wang Shuaiting, the chairman of the listed subsidiary of China Travel Service (Holdings) Hong Kong, was placed under investigation on suspicion of seriously violating the law and party discipline “during his tenure with China Resources”.
Wang is believed to be the third former China Resources executive detained after former chairman Song Lin was put under graft investigation in April by the authorities.
