The report titled “The Death of a Township Government Official” by the mainland Chinese media “Southern Weekend” tells the story of 27-year-old government official Wang Linming from Hengtang Town, Dong’an County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, who drowned in June 2025 while accompanying a leader on a fishing trip. The report reveals that behind the incident lies the pressure on grassroots workers to entertain leaders, falsify expenses, play cards, and engage in gambling in order to climb the career ladder. The article was quickly taken down after publication.
According to “Southern Weekend,” Wang Linming came from a rural background, and his family considered his success in becoming a government official as a matter of great pride. After starting his job, he realized that in order to make so-called “progress,” he had to drink with leaders, play cards, and help with falsifying accounts. He complied but ended up accumulating a debt of 360,000 yuan and was investigated for false reporting, leading to the collapse of his promotion plan. Psychological assessments showed he suffered from “severe depression.”
After Wang Linming’s death, his family discovered records on his phone showing leaders engaging in irregular wining and dining, playing cards, and gambling. When these records were exposed, the situation escalated, leading to the suspension of the implicated secretary.
Wang Linming’s funeral was held on May 27, 2026, almost a year after his passing. Before his death, he worked as a comprehensive governance specialist and a CPPCC specialist at the Hengtang Town Government in Dong’an County, Yongzhou City, as a primary-level officer. On the day of the incident, June 30, 2025, the river in Hengtang Town was swift after a rain, and the deputy secretary of the town invited him to go fishing.
In chats with his university friends, Wang Linming referred to the activity as “accompanying the leader for fishing.” The deputy secretary planned to return to Changsha later on, to which Wang Linming expressed, “I hope people will remember me when they return to Changsha three years later.”
Wang Linming’s sister, Wang Lingheng, mentioned that Wang Linming crossed the river dam and disappeared around 18:40 that day, as confirmed by colleagues who looked back and couldn’t find him. His body was discovered the next day in a downstream riverbed five kilometers away.
In January 2026, Wang Lingheng received an anonymous email describing how Wang Linming undertook the workload of several people during his tenure, leading to significant stress and negative changes in his mental state. She subsequently unlocked her brother’s phone, uncovering chat records showing that half a month before his death, he had been investigated for false expense reporting. The phone also contained various records of colleagues and leaders engaging in irregular wining and dining, playing cards, and gambling.
In the local community’s view, Wang Linming had a low alcohol tolerance. However, in Hengtang Town, he frequently engaged in socializing and often had bloodshot eyes. He mentioned to friends on WeChat that he drank more in a month at work than in the previous twenty years.
“On August 8, 2023, the secretary didn’t get drunk at all, and was well protected. ” Wang Linming boasted to a colleague on WeChat, receiving praise in return.
The then secretary of the Hengtang Town Party Committee, Yi Nian, was seen as a “big tree worth befriending” in Wang Linming’s perception. Based on his chat records, Wang Linming often drank excessively, leading to vomiting and subsequent visits to the hospital. His phone gallery contained blurry photos from late-night gatherings where intoxicated men were pictured.
WeChat conversations show that since February 2023, Wang Linming received information about leaders’ dining arrangements from his colleague Liu. Wang Linming would pre-order seats, select dishes, and prepare white wine for these gatherings.
Restaurant consumption data reported by Wang Linming on WeChat showed that in 2022, the Hengtang Town government spent over 70,000 yuan in total at four restaurants for official dinners, soaring to nearly 200,000 yuan in 2023.
These dining receipts and chat records later became direct evidence of Wang Linming’s false reporting – as the handler, he habitually padded expense reports for office supplies, offsetting the cost of official dinners.
The Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank stated that from February to June 2025, Wang Linming applied multiple times for loans, totaling 365,000 yuan, granted in twelve installments. Following Wang Linming’s death, his family was responsible for repayment, with interest, amounting to almost 370,000 yuan. The court eventually ruled in favor of Dong’an Rural Commercial Bank.
However, Wang Lingheng discovered extensive transfer records on Wang Linming’s phone. The majority of these transfers occurred during the same period in which he played cards and made frequent transfers. Most of these transactions took place at night, with amounts exceeding 1000 yuan each. In late November 2023, Wang Linming transferred more than 10,000 yuan in a single transaction.
Most of the card games Wang Linming played were with leaders and colleagues, as evidenced by the conversations including titles like mayor, chairman, and director. The games took place in various locations, from restaurants to government premises, and sometimes even at the police station.
Images depicted stacks of one-hundred yuan bills displayed alongside cards. Internally referred to as “hosting events,” these activities often lasted for days, occasionally overnight, with participants heading straight to work after the games. One record showed that on January 3, 2024, starting at 15:33, Wang Linming made 26 consecutive transactions to several individuals, totaling over 70,000 yuan by 9:02 the following morning, including a withdrawal of 17,000 yuan from the rural commercial bank.
On January 10, 2024, Wang Linming exchanged messages with someone named He, commenting on large sums being wagered and raised concerns over excessive gambling. During the chat, He borrowed money from Wang multiple times for gambling.
Wang Lingheng speculated that Wang Linming’s losses might have been deliberate.
According to local sources, Yongzhou was rampant with card rooms.
After becoming a government official, Wang Linming seemed eager to shed his youthful ways. Among his WeChat collection was a mind map titled “Interpersonal Relationships,” documenting social skills corresponding to various situations.
“He was too eager to ‘progress,'” said Wang Linming’s friend, Zhang Hao.
Wang Linming had aspirations of climbing the bureaucratic ladder, stating that if he failed the selection process, he would steadily advance through the ranks by becoming a deputy, then a department head, and eventually a vice minister. However, at the time of his untimely death, he remained a primary-level officer.
As of the time of publication, the article had been removed from the Southern Weekend’s WeChat official account, website, and app. The article was circulated online abroad (
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), sparking discussions among netizens:
“This isn’t about promotion; it’s falling into an abyss.”
“Risking one’s life to accompany a leader on a fishing trip – the cost of ‘progress’ is too high.”
“The mental health crisis in the Chinese civil service system is severely underestimated.”
“I wonder, if Officer Wang hadn’t drowned, how would he have repaid that 360,000 yuan loan? The greatest tragedy lies in the layers of exploitation and shifting of burdens.”
“The Communist Party’s system is a big dye vat; no one can stay clean and pure. The true colors of the system will inevitably affect everyone.”
Current affairs commentator Li Linyi remarked that this article reveals some dark details of the CCP’s grassroots officialdom, where many ambitious individuals are destroyed. This is just a glimpse of the darkness; these officials may also participate in dirty activities like human rights violations. This young man’s disillusionment is a small glimpse of the reality within the CCP’s bureaucratic system, which is why the regime, accustomed to concealing such truths, cannot allow the article to remain public.