Graft-fighters' suicides linked to pressure of Xi's corruption crackdown
Analyst speculates that spate of deaths could be due to Xi Jinping's tough stance on corruption
A spate of recent suicides by local anti-graft and judiciary officials may be linked to a sweeping crackdown on corruption launched by new Communist Party boss Xi Jinping, analysts say.
Ke Jianguo, director of the anti-corruption bureau in Chongzhou, Sichuan jumped from his high-rise office at the city's procuratorate headquarters last Sunday and was found dead at the scene.
There was no word on why he chose to end his life, but some reports, citing relatives, suggested he had been working under huge pressure and had been acting differently recently.
On the mainland, anti-corruption bureau chiefs at different levels of governments are invariably also deputy heads of local prosecution departments.
Ke's suicide followed that of Qi Xiaolin, the deputy police chief in Guangzhou, who was found hanged on January 8, and Zhang Wanxiong, the deputy head of the Liangzhou District People's Court in Wuwei, Gansu, who jumped to his death on January 11.
Dr James Sung Lap-kung, a City University political analyst, said the spate of suicides of law-enforcement officials was a side effect of the sweeping campaign targeting corrupt officials initiated by Xi after he succeeded Hu Jintao as party general secretary in November.