Lai Minhua,

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: (January 1959 - 30 October 2015) was a police officer from

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, who was Director General of Macau Customs Service. According to official sources, she died by suicide in 2015, however doubt has been cast over this verdict.

Early life and education

Lai was born in January 1959 in

, but her family originate from

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. She graduated from

Macau Security Force The Macau Security Force (, ) is Macau's public security body under the Secretariat for Security, responsible for handling government activities ranging from law enforcement to public safety. History In 1975, the MSF was created to take the plac ...

Higher School with a BA in Police Science and went on study for a MA in Public Administration from

Sun Yat-sen University Sun Yat-sen University (, abbreviated SYSU and colloquially known in Chinese as Zhongda), also known as Zhongshan University, is a national key public research university located in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It was founded in 1924 by and nam ...

Career

Lai joined the Macau Public Security Police Force in April 1984. She moved to the Marine Police Inspection Team the following year as a second-class officer. In June 1986, she was promoted to Deputy Sheriff; in October 1990, she was promoted to Sheriff. She was appointed Deputy Superintendent of Police in January 1995, and then rose to the position of Chief Police Officer. In March 1999, she was appointed deputy director of the Marine Police Inspection Bureau and deputy director of Customs. At the time of her death, she was Director General of Macao Customs Service.

Death

On 30 October 2015, she was found dead in a public toilet next to a private housing estate in

Taipa Taipa ( zh, t=氹仔, ; pt, Taipa, ) was a former island in Macau, presently united with the island of Coloane by reclaimed land known as Cotai. Administratively, the boundaries of the traditional civil parish Freguesia de Nossa Senhora do Ca ...

. According to the police, Lai had taken sleeping pills, had cuts on her right neck and wrists, and a plastic bag was placed on her head. The wounds on her body were consistent with self infliction, but the utility knife apparently used was found neatly stored in the deceased's handbag. Initially the possibility of suicide was ruled out, as no suicide note was found at the scene, and she was scheduled to go to

Zhuhai Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pearl ...

that day to discuss anti-smuggling work with the local police. Later, the Judicial Police ruled out the possibility of murder, so she was suspected of dying by suicide. However, according to the Macau Independent Commission Against Corruption, Lai was not one of the targets of the ICAC's investigation, and there is no known reason for suicide. On the day the news of Lai's death was posted, some netizens questioned the veracity of the claim of suicide, and citing whether the deceased could cut other parts of the body and use a plastic bag to cover their head, whilst under the influence of drugs, with multiple wounds. Hong Kong cartoonist

Bai Shui BAI or Bai may refer to: BAI Organizations * BAI Communications, telecommunications infrastructure company *BAI (organization), professional organization for financial services in the United States *Badminton Association of India, India's gov ...

expressed this question in cartoons in his satirical comic work "Warm Shui Theater".

Legacy

According to official sources, Lai was the first senior official to commit suicide in office since Macau was handed over to the People's Republic of China in 1999. Her death, and its subsequent reporting, has been used as a case study on media use in Macau and in particular how mainstream media was reluctant to report on her death.

References

{{Authority control 1959 births 2015 deaths Macau women in politics Sun Yat-sen University alumni Macanese people Women police officers