Senior Chinese official commits suicide

A senior Chinese official has committed suicide after coming under investigation for economic crimes, a colleague said on Friday, one of the highest-ranking officials to kill himself in three decades.
Song Pingshun, 61, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in the northern port city of Tianjin, was found dead on Tuesday, a Tianjin government official said, requesting anonymity.
"He was found dead in bed from an overdose of sleeping pills ... He had economic problems and killed himself," the official told Reuters by telephone. The Tianjin CPPCC is the top advisory body to the local people's congress, or city council.
China's state media have been silent on the suicide. The New York-based Chinese-language news portal Duowei (www.dwnews.com) said Song was one of the most senior officials to kill himself in three decades.
Song spent almost his entire career in Tianjin. He once served as the city's vice-mayor, police chief and secretary of the Communist Party's Tianjin Political and Law Commission, which oversees police, prosecutors and judges.
Song held a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister because the political status of Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing is equivalent to that of a cabinet ministry.
The four cities are directly under the jurisdiction of the cabinet and do not report to provincial governments. Song's last public appearance was on Sunday when he attended the opening of a museum dedicated to late premier Zhou Enlai in Tianjin. Zhang Gaoli, the city's party boss, and Mayor Dai Xianglong also attended.
Suicide is relatively common among Chinese officials targeted in corruption probes as it avoids confiscation of assets and protects families.
The suicide of Beijing vice-mayor Wang Baosen in 1995 led to the downfall months later of then Beijing Party boss Chen Xitong, who also lost his seat in the Party's decision-making Politburo. In 2005, Wang Wei, a vice mayor of the north-eastern city of Jilin, hanged himself after a 10-day government cover-up of a toxic spill. An explosion at a chemical plant poured 100 tonnes of benzene compounds into the Songhua river.