Slew of Suicides rocks China’s Liuzhi System
April 16. June 2. July 17. July 27.
The dates mark the rapid succession of reported suicides by Chinese entrepreneurs.
All four individuals are reported to have been in their early to mid-50’s, with successful careers in the home furnishing and related industries.
They also shared one other commonality: they all came under disciplinary investigation and had only recently been released from Liuzhi. Wang Linpeng (汪林朋), who took his own life on July 27, had been released only four days prior.
Details are murky at best, as is often the case for investigations by the Chinese Communist Party’s disciplinary organ, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), and its use of the Liuzhi system, which allows them – entirely outside of the judicial system – to secretly detain those investigated.
Since reforms in 2018, the body wields broad discretionary power over large swathes of Chinese society. Chief amongst them its use of the ‘investigative tool’ Liuzhi: a system of incommunicado detention, in solitary confinement, where torture is rife.
Broad Remit
Official statistics from the Central Commission on Discipline Inspection (CCDI) show a rapid increase in the number of disciplinary investigations, punishments and incommunicado detentions in 2024. Comparative data from 2018 to 2024 shows that after remaining stable over the course of the years, the number of disciplinary investigations grew by 40% during 2024.
That steep increase likely accounts for the growing number of targets in non-traditional sectors for the CCDI. In 2024, around 17,000 of those who received disciplinary sanctions worked in the country’s financial sector. 94,000 in State-owned enterprises. And 60,000 within the pharmaceutical sector.
Following the growth in disciplinary investigations, the use of the harshest tool available for such investigations – reserved for individuals facing major Party sanctions and major position adjustments, or criminal prosecution – rose accordingly by no less than 46% compared to 2023. In 2024, a declared 38,000 individuals were held in the system.
CCDI - also known under its state front National Commission of Supervision (NCS) - is the Chinese Communist Party police force or “disciplinary watchdog”. It has the power to take people off the streets and hold them incommunicado at secret locations for up to 6 months (or even more). Its operations are not part of the formal legal system in any way. Once inside Liuzhi, there is no external oversight, no right to access legal counsel, no external appeal body, and no way to communicate with the outside world. Regulations do not oblige the CCDI to inform families of target’s whereabouts or that they’ve even been taken at all.
Traditionally reserved for investigating and disciplining Communist Party members, the CCDI’s remit was broadened significantly under the 2018 National Supervision Law to include vast sectors of Chinese society.
While not all investigations come with the use of Liuzhi and official disaggregated data is often hard to come by, sparse Party-state media reporting indicate growing pressure on the entrepreneurial sector.
In 2023, a CCP newspaper stated 142 employees of State-owned enterprises went through Liuzhi in the first half of 2023 alone, while another outlet mentioned some 78 chairpersons or ultimate beneficial owners, of 72 different A-listed companies, had been entangled with the CCDI that year.
A 2024 report showed 106 directors, senior managers and key employees of publicly listed companies had faced ‘compulsory measures’ that year, and that nearly 60% of those had been placed into Liuzhi.
One media outlet noted that at least 19 entrepreneurs were placed in Liuzhi during the first semester of 2025. This includes the case of Guo Baichun (郭柏春), chairman of Asia Potash International, who found himself in Liuzhi twice. The first time occurred after a forced extra-judicial return from Laos on or around March 22, 2024. On March 29 that year his company received a notice of his placement in Liuzhi by the Ningxia Supervision Commission. On April 19, his fellow senior manager Ma Yingjun (马英军), was taken in by the same Commission. About six months later, Guo was released and resumed some duties at his company. Not for long. On January 17, 2025, he was placed into Liuzhi again. Six month later, he was formally arrested for alleged embezzlement of public funds and abuse of power.
Recent public reporting cites at least five entrepreneurs known to have been taken into the system in mid-August alone.
Pi Yu (皮宇), director and general manager of Dameng Data, was placed into Liuzhi sometime before the company announced it on August 19. On August 21, the same company announced another senior manager, Chen Wen (陈文), had also taken.
Liu Jiande (刘建德), director and ultimate beneficial owner of Kesi Technology, was placed into Liuzhi, according to information provided to the company by his family on August 19.
Yue Yamei (岳亚梅), general manager of Xiling Information, was placed into Liuzhi by the supervisory commission in Alashankou on August 20.
Chen Baixiao (陈柏校), chairman of Guotai Environmental Protection, was placed into Liuzhi by the supervisory commission in Linping District, Hangzhou, on August 17.
Official CCDI data from 2023 and 2024 suggest a just above 4% average of all investigations – 4.15% in 2023 and 4.33% in 2024 – included the use of Liuzhi. Insufficient disaggregated data is available to make any firm estimates for separate target categories, such as the entrepreneurial sector.
However, if official CCDI data states at least 171,000 individuals were effectively sanctioned (e.g. following investigation), it stands to reason that the number of entrepreneurs placed in Liuzhi during 2024 likely runs in the upper thousands.
Death by Liuzhi
The Jianghan District Supervisory Commission in Wuhan placed Wang Linpeng (汪林朋), chairman of Easyhome, into Liuzhi on April 17.
On July 23, Wang was released from Liuzhi, ‘pending investigation’.
On July 27, Wang jumped to his death.
Similar cases include Zeng Yuzhou (曾育周), founder of L&D Home, who died on July 17; Liu Wenchao (刘文超) of Xizi Elevator, who died on June 2; and Bi Guangjun (毕光钧), founder of Shaoxing Jindianzi Textile, who died on April 16.
All committed suicide shortly after their release from Liuzhi.
As far as is known, their companies remain under investigation. Public information indicates several more people in the home furnishing and related businesses have been placed into Liuzhi, but very little detail is available.
Online debates and State media coverage
The growing slew of disciplinary investigations, incommunicado detentions and the rapid succession of recent suicides have sparked online debate despite stringent censorship. Pieces like Located in Heilongjiang, I had a nightmare in which I dreamt I was put under Liuzhi, Entrepreneurs are frequently subjected to Liuzhi, posing a complex and sensitive survival challenge, and In judicial proceedings, the supervisory commission’s Liuzhi procedure should not become an invisible black box, have all racked up 100,000+ views and a barrage of negative commentary, from lawyers to law professors and others challenging the system.
While unverified, a recurring interpretation online is that with the downward turn in China’s economy and the central government’s tying up the purse strings for local authorities, since 2023 local governments have found a lucrative way to capture money and assets as to make up for low tax revenue and ballooning local debt.
Referred to as ‘offshore fishing’ (远洋捕捞), they use their broad discretionary powers to investigate or arrest CEO’s and business leaders to draw financial benefit. The matter of this novel ‘purge’ has become a hot topic of online debate, in particular in cases that appear violent in nature. One such example occurred in June 2023, when two county police officers took a businessman from his home under the guise of an investigation, only to attempt a shakedown. The businessman escaped by jumping out of the vehicle.
Shortly after, the CCP promulgated the Private Sector Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China, aimed at regulating illegal actions taken by local authorities. The NPC Standing Committee adopted it on April 30 this year, and the law came into effect on May 20. While the efficiency of the new law to effectively counter alleged offshore fishing cannot yet be measured, it appears to have produced at least one clear effect as media reports and limited debate on the topic have been tolerated recently.
Reason for fear
The current version of the Liuzhi system came into effect in March 2018. It took a mere month and a half before the first – known – death within the system: death by torture.
It didn’t even happen to someone investigated for any active wrongdoing. Chen Yong (陈勇) was a 45-year-old man who had worked as a chauffeur to an official under investigation.
As reported earlier by SD:
45-year-old Chen Yong was placed in Liuzhi by the Fujian Supervision Commission on April 9, 2018.
At 8 PM on May 5, 2018, he was declared deceased. A mere six weeks after the National Supervision Law was promulgated.
Chen was not a suspect in the case under investigation. He was not even an individual under the mandate of the CCDI-NCS. He just happened to have worked for someone who was…
Until 2016, Chen was a chauffeur for the Jianyang District Government of Nanping City. When the District’s Vice-Director Lin Qiang was placed under investigation, Chen’s former position was enough to snare him up.
News of his death first appeared in media outlet Caixin but was quickly scrubbed by censors. However, that original report included witness statements from his family that leave little doubt as to what happened: on May 5, nearly a month into Chen’s detention, his family received a summons from the authorities. This was the first time they had heard anything from the NCS or on where Chen had disappeared to.
Once they arrived at the specified location, they were taken into the morgue and shown their deceased loved one.
[He had] “a disfigured face. I pulled his shirt up and saw his chest was caved in. He had black and blue bruises on his waist. They stopped me when I tried to check his lower body,” his sister said.
His wife confirmed the statements after arriving later that evening. Yet, according to the authorities, Chen simply collapsed during an interrogation at 4 PM that day. After being rushed to the hospital, by 8 PM he had died. Family requests to review video recordings were denied.
Torture and severe ill-treatment are rampant within the Liuzhi system. Indeed, the system of enforced disappearances and incommunicado, solitary confinement, detention for up to six months is defined as torture in and of itself under international law.
Death by torture is almost certainly not limited to Chen Yong. But the unsupervised, untransparent and unlimited power of the CCDI makes it almost impossible for such stories – leave alone evidence - to make it into the public eye. An ‘invisible black box’ indeed.
