Experts urged authorities to disclose information related to officials' accidental deaths in a timely and truthful manner after several officials recently died of unnatural causes.
At least seven officials throughout the country have died of unnatural causes in the past 17 days. These include Lin Changshu, former director of the Xiamen Bureau of Land Resources and Real Estate Management in Fujian Province, who was found dead in a park; and Xiao Wensun, former mayor of Liuzhou in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who drowned while out on a walk, according to Beijing-based newspaper the Legal Mirror.
Amid public speculation about the possible hidden reasons behind those deaths, local authorities have offered no detailed explanations of the circumstances.
Unnatural deaths of officials are often attributed to depression and excessive pressure, media reported.
Yang Xiaojun, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing, told the Global Times that given the officials' identities as civil servants, it is natural for the public to show interest in the causes of their deaths. "Because the government has a relatively low degree of information disclosure, and their publicized information is different from what the public wants to know, speculation and doubts are bound to prevail, especially in the current era, in which information flows quickly through the Internet " Yang explained.
Hao Zhuang, former head of the Jiaohe Police Bureau in Jilin Province, reportedly fell from a building while he was cleaning a window, the local government said Wednesday.
On November 4, Xiao Wensun drowned after falling into the Liujiang River while taking a walk. There was speculation that Xiao was under investigation and that his death may be related to this, but the local government has not responded to such rumors. Xiao's secretary, who accompanied him that day, also went missing, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Yang said the government's conservative way of publicizing officials' deaths could harm its credibility in the long run. "The government should base their response on the facts, release information truthfully and in a timely fashion and respect people's right to know," he said.
