The case of the murder of Liu Wenjie, the Party Secretary and Director of the Finance Department of Hunan Province in the Communist Party of China, continues to unfold with the official report being questioned. The latest revelation indicates that Liu Wenjie had previously provided a guarantee for a loan for the son of the current Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Fu Kui, and the loan was facilitated by one of the suspects, Jiang Yihui. The dispute over interests between them led to the tragedy.
On September 19th of this year, the Changsha police in Hunan announced that at 9:12 am on that day, 58-year-old Liu Wenjie, the Party Secretary and Director of the Finance Department of Hunan Province, was killed, with the suspects Jiang (male, 35 years old) and Jiang Hui (male, 31 years old) both falling to their deaths from a building. The police later reported on the details of Liu Wenjie’s murder, stating that the two suspects had kidnapped Liu Wenjie with a knife, and during the struggle, Liu fell from the building while one of the suspects fled and also fell to his death. It was revealed that one of the suspects in debt from gambling in Macau. The police also mentioned that there was no prior connection between Liu Wenjie and his family with the suspects before the incident.
According to a report by Caixin on September 24th of this year, the two suspects mentioned in the report were Jiang Yihui and Jiang Hui, both from Wukou Town, Pingjiang County, Yueyang City. Jiang Yihui is a member of the People’s Congress and the Political Consultative Conference of Pingjiang, while Jiang Hui is a shareholder of Hunan Jiangshi Wood Co., Ltd.
Independent commentator Cai Shunkun revealed on a self-media program on September 27th that he had received insider information that Liu Wenjie’s current husband is a deputy-level official from the Hunan Provincial Audit Office, and their daughter used to be a reporter for CCTV.
It is said that when Liu Wenjie was serving as the Deputy Director of the Finance Department, he met Jiang Yihui, who was in his twenties at the time and running a furniture business in Pingjiang to help the poor. They remained in contact afterwards. During the years 2015 to 2018, Fu Kui, who served as the Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, had a close relationship with Liu Wenjie and is currently a Deputy Secretary of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission after being transferred back to Beijing.
Cai Shunkun stated that Fu Kui’s son, who was involved in real estate business, was in financial trouble, and Fu directly sought help from Liu Wenjie to raise a loan of 60 million RMB. Liu approached Jiang Yihui for the loan, with an interest rate of 15%, and Liu provided the guarantee. Jiang then borrowed 60 million yuan from private lenders. Subsequently, Liu Wenjie smoothly took over as the Director of the Audit Department and the Finance Department.
Due to the sluggish real estate market, Fu’s son was unable to repay the principal and interest. Feeling cornered in Pingjiang, Jiang Yihui frequently called Liu for repayment. Liu instructed her husband to raise 20 million yuan to give to Jiang and still owed over 50 million yuan in principal and interest.
On the day of the incident, Jiang Yihui and Jiang Hui forced Liu Wenjie to repay the debt at home. Liu immediately made two phone calls to her husband to arrange for more money. At eight-thirty in the morning, a televised video conference of the State Council was scheduled to discuss the extension of retirement age, requiring the attendance of finance department heads from various provinces. However, Liu did not appear at the meeting. When the secretary called to check on Liu’s whereabouts, Liu claimed to be unwell. The secretary went to her house and knocked on the door. Liu Wenjie and Jiang Hui fell from the building in the ensuing chaos. Jiang Yihui attempted to escape from the 12th floor (Liu lived on the 13th floor) but accidentally fell to his death as well.
Cai Shunkun mentioned that Liu Wenjie’s husband from the Audit Department is now under control. Fu Kui, a senior official from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, is also likely to face detention. Additionally, the head of the Tianxin District Public Security Sub-Bureau in Changsha might also be implicated because Liu Wenjie had called him to hint about the danger she was in, which he apparently ignored. The entire officialdom in Changsha, as well as Hunan, may be affected due to the authorities’ cover-ups and misleading information.
Public records show that Fu Kui was born in September 1962 in Danjiangkou, Hubei Province. He joined the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in August 1986, becoming a full-division cadre by October 1994. By December 2010, he served as the Deputy Secretary-General and Director of the Integrated Supervision Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. After Wang Qishan took over the Commission, in January 2014, Fu Kui was appointed as the Deputy Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Director of the Prevention and Control Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. In March 2014, he became the Deputy Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Director of the International Cooperation Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, as well as the head of the International Cooperation Office of the newly established Supervision Department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
In July 2015, Fu Kui was appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection. In January 2021, he was additionally appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and in February 2021, he was named the Vice Chairman of the National Supervisory Commission.
A report by Caixin on September 24th this year detailed some aspects of the incident on the day of its occurrence. An informant indicated that in the morning of September 19th, when Liu Wenjie was expected to be at work, staff noticed her absence in the office. After waiting for some time, they tried calling her but got no response. They then went to her home and found the door locked from the inside. Relatives of Liu Wenjie were contacted to bring the key to open the door.
The source mentioned that Liu Wenjie’s nephew who lived with her had a key to the house, but they found the door locked from the inside. In the last thirty to forty minutes before Liu Wenjie’s death, there were people close to her outside her door, but no one imagined a criminal incident was unfolding inside her home.
The report also mentioned that Liu Wenjie’s husband worked in another provincial unit, and the couple had a son who worked in the media industry.
The difference between Cai Shunkun’s disclosure and Caixin’s report lies in whether Liu Wenjie had a daughter or a son.
Earlier, it was revealed by insiders that there was a financial dispute involving 60 million RMB between Liu Wenjie and Jiang Yihui and Jiang Hui. Previously, the Changsha police had reported on the case, mentioning that the suspect Jiang Hui had tied two curtains together and tried to escape from the scene by sliding down to the 12th floor but fell to his death. Details such as a backpack containing a hook and a colored nylon rope about three meters long found on the suspect were met with scrutiny by netizens.
Following the incident, Jiang Hui’s wife took to social media to plead for justice, stating that her husband had gone out for business discussions and had been missing for several days. She did not believe he kidnapped the department head and then committed suicide by jumping off the building, suspecting foul play instead.
Caixin’s previous report quoted several villagers and friends familiar with Jiang Yihui and Jiang Hui who expressed disbelief that “they would do such things as described in the report.” They were shocked and saddened upon learning about their deaths. Some netizens doubted that Jiang Hui and Jiang Yihui might have been “set up as culprits.”
The funeral of Liu Wenjie was held on September 21st in Changsha, with a large number of people attending, including several high-ranking officials at the provincial level.