BEIJING — The reported cause of death was respiratory failure, but the images circulating over Chinese social media Thursday told a different story, of a man staring blankly from in a hospital bed, his gaunt body covered with bruises and scabs.
Qian Guoliang, 48, is the third Chinese official in the last three months known to have died while under detention of Communist Party investigators. His death, which came two months after he was ordered to submit to an extralegal investigative procedure reserved for party members, has raised concerns about China’s renewed efforts to crack down on official corruption.
Xi Jinping, China’s new leader, has emphasized tackling official malfeasance, and says that a failure to control graft could threaten the survival of the Communist Party. On Tuesday he launched a “party rectification” campaign to stamp out waste, bureaucracy and graft. He has said the party must fight “tigers and flies at the same time,” meaning both leaders and lowly cadres.
In recent months a handful of senior officials have been targeted in corruption investigations, including Liu Tienan, a top economic planner, and Ni Fake, a former vice governor of Anhui province. Liu Zhijun, the former head of the railway ministry, went on trial earlier this month for receiving millions of dollars in bribes, and Bo Xilai, formerly a rising party secretary in Chongqing, has been in detention for more than a year while under investigation for corruption and abuse of power.
The Communist Party makes use of a secretive system of detention known as “shuanggui” to scrutinize and discipline its members. The investigative mechanism exists outside the Chinese legal system, offering wide potential for abuse.
“Shuanggui has its own rules. It doesn’t follow the rule of law,” said Fu Hualing, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. “The party system has its own rules.”
Shuanggui means “double regulations,” referring to a set time and place at which party members are meant to appear. The targets can be held at special party detention centers or hotels. The system allows open-ended detention, and subjects are sometimes beaten, starved and sleep-deprived to force confessions.
“The practice of shuanggui is above and outside the law, yet it is so commonly used,” says Si Weijiang, a lawyer hired by Qian’s family and who has represented the families of other officials who have died in custody. “It is highly dangerous. I’m afraid this death won’t be the last if this practice continues.”
Reports of abuse of criminal suspects can often generate public concern in China, but sympathy for officials who have died in shuanggui custody is tempered by greater anger over corruption.
“If you look at all the surveys, corruption is always ranked as a top public concern,” Mr. Fu said. “As long as shuanggui is used as an anti-corruption enforcement weapon I think it has the support of general public.”
Lower-level officials, the “flies” in Xi Jinping’s formulation, have endured the harshest treatment while under investigation. Jia Jiuxiang, a 49-year-old court official in Sanmenxia, a city along the Yellow River in central Henan province, died on April 23 after 11 days in custody. His death was reported as a heart attack, but his family said his body was swollen and bruised.
Yu Qiyi, a 41-year-old engineer with a state-owned firm in the southern coastal city of Wenzhou, died on April 9 after five weeks of detention. Six people have been arrested and charged with intentional assault in connection to his death, according to Mr. Si and a microblog account run by Mr. Yu’s family.
Mr. Qian, the latest official to die while under investigation, was head of the seismological bureau in Huangmei county in central Hubei province. He was detained by Communist Party investigators on April 8, but after he began to suffer convulsions and lose consciousness he was sent to a hospital on June 3, according to the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily, which first reported his death.
“So far the family has not received any official explanation as why this happened to Qian,” said Mr. Si, the lawyer. “The family demands to see recorded videos and audios of the interrogation, but there has been no reply.”
The Huangmei county propaganda department did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.
Mr. Qian’s wife, Wang Qizhen, confirmed her husband’s death in a brief phone interview but declined to discuss his case further, saying she was preparing for his funeral. She told the Southern Metropolis Daily that they had earlier heard rumors that Huangmei county was under orders to uncover at least three corrupt officials this year, but her husband was unconcerned.
“We don’t know who the next unlucky one will be,” she quoted her husband as saying, “but I’m a clean official, so I can sleep easy.”
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