Zheng Xiaosong

In 2016, Zheng was transferred back to Beijing to serve as Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party. A month before the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he was promoted to Director of the Macau Liaison Office, a ministerial-level He was elected as a member of the 19th Central Committee of the CCP. He was 59. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing issued a statement saying that he had suffered from depression, with the implication that he had committed suicide. Such reported suicides have been much more common during Xi's leadership than during that of his predecessor Hu Jintao. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, which announced that his death had been due to depression, has been investigated for corruption since 2016 by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and criticized by it for its "six sins", and other Hong Kong and Macao official organizations have also been suspected of corruption.

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