Senior Chinese official commits suicide: reports

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official has committed suicide after coming under investigation for economic crimes, overseas media reported on Friday, one of the highest-ranking officials to kill himself in three decades.

Two government sources told Reuters Song Pingshun had died but declined to provide further details. He was 61.

Song, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in the northern port city of Tianjin, was found dead on Wednesday after jumping from Tianjin's CPPCC building, Hong Kong's Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper said.

The Tianjin CPPCC is the top advisory body to the local people's congress, or city council.

The New York-based news portal Duowei (www.dwnews.com) said Song killed himself on Tuesday. It did not elaborate.

If confirmed, Song would be one of the most senior officials to kill himself in three decades, Duowei said.

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 Science and Law Commission, which oversees police, prosecutors and judges.

A spokesman for the Tianjin city government, reached by telephone, would neither confirm nor deny the report.