Retired Shantou official Lai Yicheng gives himself up after mistress found dead

A retired senior government official in Shantou has turned himself in to the police after the death of his mistress.

A spokeswoman for the city government's information office confirmed that Lai Yicheng, 69, had given himself in to the authorities on Wednesday evening.

Media in the city had reported that 35-year-old Ji Ning had died after a dispute at about 5pm on Wednesday at a flat in the Longhu district.

The reports said the woman had been knocked unconscious and that a man had called a police hotline an hour later to give himself up.

Police found the woman lying on a bed inside the apartment, but she was later pronounced dead.

The media reports said Ji, from Shenyang in Liaoning province, had given birth to two of Lai's children in 2009 and last year.

The spokeswoman for the Shantou city government said police were still gathering evidence about the death.

She declined to say whether the police were investigating a murder or manslaughter and that the investigation was continuing.

Lai originally comes from Puning in Guangdong and has served as the vice-chairman of Shantou's political advisory body, the Shantou People's Political Consultative Conference.

He was deputy Communist Party secretary of Shantou from 1998 to 2003 as well as serving as party secretary for politics and law in the city.

Lai has also previously held the position of party secretary of Shantou's anti-corruption agency.