Zheng Xiaosong

Zheng was a member of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and a delegate to the 13th National People's Congress.

Zheng Xiaosong (Chinese: 郑晓松 ; September 1959 – 20 October 2018) was a Chinese politician and diplomat. He was Director of the Macau Liaison Office, a ministerial-level position, until he fell to his death from his residence in October 2018. He formerly served as Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, Vice Governor of Fujian Province, and secretary-general of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

On 20 October 2018, Zheng died in Macau after falling from a tall building where he lived. He was 59. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing issued a statement saying that he had suffered from depression, with the implication that he had committed suicide. On Chinese social media many expressed concern and sadness about his depression, but others noted that at least 7 other Chinese officials have fallen from buildings this year, with one injured and at least 6 dead. Although there is no evidence that Zheng was suspected of corruption, in recent years hundreds of mid-level Chinese officials accused of corruption have died, reportedly by suicide, although observers have doubted such accounts.

In 2016, Zheng was transferred back to Beijing to serve as Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China. A month before the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), he was promoted to Director of the Macau Liaison Office, a ministerial-level position in charge of relations between the central government and the Macau Special Administrative Region. He was elected as a member of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC.

Zheng died just days before the 23 October opening of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, the world's longest sea crossing linking Macau and Hong Kong. Bruce Lui Ping-kuen, convener of Hong Kong's Independent Commentators Association, claimed that in order to avoid speculation that might disturb Party General Secretary Xi Jinping's visit for the opening of the bridge, Beijing had been too quick to conclude that Zheng had died while suffering from depression, a conclusion they announced even before the completion of the investigation by the Macao police.. Such reported suicides have been much more common during Xi's leadership than during that of his predecessor Hu Jintao. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, which announced that his death had been due to depression, has been investigated for corruption since 2016 by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and criticized by it for its "six sins", and other Hong Kong and Macao official organizations have also been suspected of corruption.

Zheng was promoted to major political posts after Party General Secretary Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. He was appointed Vice Governor of Fujian Province in July 2013, and later became a member of the standing committee and secretary-general of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Zheng was born in September 1959 in Beijing, China. He graduated from the University of Oslo with a degree in Norwegian language, and received diplomatic training at the University of Oxford from 1996 to 1997.