Minitrue: Delete Article on Suicide of Bank President

The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.

All news websites immediately remove the article “China Development Bank Shandong’s President Zhong Xiaolong Commits Suicide; Suspected of Involvement in Illegal Guarantees Worth Several Billion.” Do not conduct follow-up reporting. (July 20, 2019) [Chinese]

At Caixin English, Zhang Yuzhe and Yang Ge reported last week on the suicide of the head of China Development Bank’s Shandong provincial branch, and the ongoing investigation into crimes which occurred at a different branch where he had previously held a leadership role:

Zhong Xiaolong was discovered in his room with his wrists slit while in Beijing on July 17, Caixin learned from a knowledgeable source. In addition to the slit wrists, he had also stabbed himself in the chest, the source said. He was taken to a hospital where he died that evening.

[…] Zhong’s death comes amid an ongoing investigation at the provincial branch of China Development Bank in Northeast China’s Jilin province. That probe exposed losses of more than 3 billion yuan ($436 million) at the branch tied to illegal loan guarantees made by the institution over many years. Zhong was a former deputy head of the branch.

The investigation began years earlier, but was paused under the bank’s last chairman. It was revived after the arrival last year of a new chairman, Zhao Huan, who was previously president of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., China’s third-largest commercial bank by assets, according to a source close to the bank. […] [Source]

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. Some instructions are issued by local authorities or to specific sectors, and may not apply universally across China. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. See CDT’s collection of Directives from the Ministry of Truth