Thorough investigation needed to get to bottom of Guilin official's suicide

Tang Tiansheng.[photo/xinhuanews.com]

TANG TIANSHENG, director of the food and drug administration of Guilin in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, committed suicide by jumping from the eighth floor of a local hospital building on Monday, one day after he went there to receive neurology treatment. The Beijing News commented on Tuesday:

Depression is usually the official explanation when an official commits suicide. But the local government has not yet offered an explanation for Tang's suicide, even though the usual explanation would have been very convenient for it this time as Tang ended his life while receiving neurology treatment in hospital.

However, Tang's bumpy career suggests the local political ecology is problematic.

Back in 2011, four people were detained after they hung posters in the county in memory of the Party chief, as if he had passed away overnight. When questioned, the detainees said it was Tang who paid them to put up the posters. However, further investigation showed Tang was innocent, although the case ended with no definite conclusion as to who was responsible.

Then in July 2013, when Tang was Party chief of Longsheng county, he received disciplinary punishment from the Party because he organized a feast with government money. There was a lot of public support for Tang as it was the result of a local muckraking reporter taking photos of Tang treating a local official, who was being transferred elsewhere, to a not very expensive meal.

It turned out the reporter found out Tang was at the restaurant from one of Tang's colleagues, and waited outside the restaurant until he knew Tang would have had a few drinks, then recorded Tang's comment－"Just report it. I know you come to blackmail me again"－when asked who was paying for the meal. The reporter uploaded the recording online with a short report when the Party's anti-corruption campaign focused its attention on officials entertaining with public money.

Tang was removed from his post and was transferred to the Guilin food and drug administration in March 2014.

While Tang's suicide was probably due to depression, there should be a thorough examination and improvement of the local political environment.