被自杀

被自殺
bèizìshā
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to be 'suicided', a death officially ruled a suicide but widely suspected to be murder or coerced
  2. 2 suspicious official 'suicide'

Examples

HSK 7-9
Wǎngyǒu huáiyí zhè wèi wéiquán lǜshī shì bèizìshā.
Netizens suspected that this rights lawyer had been 'suicided.'
HSK 7-9
Zàiyā rényuán tūrán shēnwáng, yúlùn huáiyí shì bèizìshā.
A detainee died suddenly, and public opinion suspected he had been 'suicided.'

Tips

grammar
Grammatically impossible, 自杀 ('suicide') is intransitive, so the passive marker shouldn't apply. That's the joke: the construction itself flags absurdity. Part of a wider X family that emerged on Chinese internet around 2008: 被就业 ('be employed,' i.e. fake employment stats), 被代表 ('be represented' without consent), 被自愿 ('volunteered against your will').
register
Politically sensitive internet slang. Used skeptically of official accounts of custodial deaths. Avoid in formal or PRC state-aligned writing.

Stroke Order

bèi
shā