Yu Xiaoping, Mayor and Party Secretary of Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, committed suicide on August 26 in his home. His body was cremated on August 29. Mainland Chinese media states that Yu is the first city Party Secretary who has committed suicide during his tenure since the Communist regime was established in 1949.

Yu’s unexpected death shocked Jiangxi. Many people think that he was involved in corruption and other scandals.

A Guangdong News article reported on September 1 that Yu’s death has caused much speculation among the locals. However, the government did not make an official statement about the reason for his suicide. Rumors range from economic extortion to extramarital affairs. The report said that relevant agencies are “in urgent investigation.”

Sources inside China said that Yu had hung himself using the power cord of a fax machine. His driver found the body when the driver came to pick him up for work on the morning of August 26. Yu’s employees described him as a workaholic with a short temper who would return to work or place work-related phone calls to his subordinates at 1 or 2 in the morning.

No other city officials appeared at his memorial service on August 29. The government also ordered that no city employee could represent the city to attend the memorial service or give flowers.

Yu’s death has become a heated discussion topic in Internet chatrooms in China. Some wonder if the police had gathered evidence of his taking bribes, some complained about the prevalence of corruption among Chinese government officials, while others questioned why he was cremated so quickly and suspected that he was actually murdered to cover up for crimes committed by even higher-level officials.