Chairman of China construction giant ‘jumps off building’

Hong Kong’s biggest circulation newspaper, The Standard, has reported on its website the passing of the chairman of state-owned infrastructure builder China Railway Construction Corporation, Chen Fenjian, 58, on Sunday.

“Chen had served as chairman, executive director, secretary to the party committee and chairman of the nomination committee of CRCC since 2018. CRCC said operations are continuing as normal.

“Chen took his own life by jumping from a building, mainland media Caixin reported, citing sources from industry insiders.

“China’s public security authority is investigating Chen’s death, according to state-run tabloid Global Times, citing sources.

“Chen’s death came as the second inspection group of China’s top state assets regulator – the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission – launched an inspection of CRCC in June.

“The deadline for the inspection group to receive petitions and complaints from the public on CRCC management’s misconduct was August 15, one day before Chen’s death, the commission said on its website.”

According to Bloomberg, Chen Fenjian was also vice-chairman, president and executive director of China Comm Construction Co Ltd from December 2016 to July 2018.

CRCC and CCCC are both companies that should be familiar in Malaysia.

CCCC has been involved in several controversial projects in Malaysia, especially the East Coast Rail Link, which has reportedly been linked with attempts to bail out 1MDB under the Najib Razak administration, as Sarawak Report has highlighted.

In October 2017, then-CCCC president Chen Fenjian told the South China Morning Post that the US$12.8bn rail project in Malaysia was being “actively advanced”.

Penangites might be interested to know that both companies are also involved in the state in a couple of controversial projects.

CCCC is the contractor for the land reclamation project at Gurney Drive and Tanjung Tokong, which is taking years to complete, past earlier targets mentioned in the press. Read about the CCCC connection in Penang.

CRCC, on the other hand, is the main contractor for the Penang tunnel project. The Hong Kong Standard quoted CRCC as saying the company’s operations are continuing as normal. But in Penang, there has been no sign of progress on the tunnel, now the subject of investigations Buy accutane the MACC.