Social change

On a gray Friday morning in February, Liu Min quietly went up to the ninth floor of an atrium building in Begbu city, Anhui province, climbed over a 1.2-meter railing and plunged to his death onto the marble floor below.

The suicide might have drawn little attention, especially in one of China's poorer provinces, except that it happened in Bengbu's municipal government building and that the dead man was chief of the city's statistics bureau.

His neighbors and others in Bengbu suspect that the 48-year-old Liu, who left behind a wife and son, faced intense pressure as the person in charge of generating economic growth data. Just weeks before Liu's death, city officials proclaimed a stunning 16.5 percent increase in gross domestic product for 2004, nearly triple the GDP increase of the year before. more...

- Posted by James Nash - 4:21:25 PM - Comment? Rules: Criticize ideas? Yes. Criticize people for holding those ideas? No. []