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Chinese police surveillance: Guangdong dissident poet commits suicide

Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 28 Jul 2021

Chinese police surveillance: Guangdong dissident poet commits suicide

Image: Pixabay

Beijing:  An outspoken poet and current affairs commentator from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong has reportedly committed suicide  after ingesting pesticide leaving a suicide note that said he was driven to the extreme measure owing to excessive state surveillance, media reports said.

Li Huizhi, 62, died on July 23 in a hospital in Guangdong's Huizhou city after being rushed there and placed on a ventilator in an attempt to save him, RFA reported.

His friend Li Xuewen told RFA that the poet had posted a suicide note online before taking his own life.

"After he had posted his suicide note online, he turned off his phone," Li Xuewen said. "He took the pesticide, and was taken to hospital after that."

The note suggested that Li had found the increased surveillance under the tenure of ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping unbearable, the news portal reported.