China Journalist Dead After Attack

BEIJING — A Chinese journalist died Tuesday from injuries sustained in a gang beating that some say was linked to his investigative work, a colleague at his newspaper said.

Sun Hongjie, a senior reporter at the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post, died at a hospital in the city of Kuitun 10 days after he was beaten by six men at a construction site, said a man at the paper who identified himself as a supervisor but refused to give his name.

Police have said the attack was the result of a personal dispute, but many Chinese journalists believe otherwise.

The Global Times newspaper said one of Sun's recent reports suggested a township government in Kuitun forced the demolition of a dairy company's building to make space for government officials' homes.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also expressed doubt about the official account of Sun's attack, saying the investigation must be taken out of the hands of local authorities and carried out at a higher level.

Even though domestic media in China remain strictly controlled by the government, many crusading journalists attempt to report on corrupt government officials and unlawful businesses. For that, they are routinely harassed, punished and even imprisoned, but violent attacks are less common.

Comments

[MikeyJaii]

02:48 PM on 12/29/2010

Should have never opened this mouth and talked about things that he shouldn't have, especially if the country strictly doesn't allow you too.

[maclyndon LEE]

10:37 AM on 12/29/2010

smilence:
1.http://news.163.com/10/1221/10/6ODVU3DE00014AED.html
2.http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2010-12-21/143821681095.shtml

[ForemostPanda]

04:06 AM on 12/29/2010

this is why assange didn't reveal chinese state secrets.

[Alex Zhang]

01:42 AM on 12/29/2010

Actually, there is a strong history of collaboration between township governments and local mafia - even the local police. These small governments wish to look good before the central government. Chinese talk about "losing face" a lot. This is a big deal in Chinese society. For the sake of preserving face, township governments and even city governments have been known to arrest reporters working for CCTV (the central government news channel), beat them, and destroy their either through their police or through vigilante groups.

Often, what ends up happening is you'll have the central government bypass an uncooperative provincial or district government and press charges against township governments. One of the many problems with the Chinese government is the variability of political agenda between the top and the bottom of government and this is reflected in leadership in general in China.

Often, you'll find that the top generally has their priorities straight, but at the bottom and everywhere in the middle, all sorts of petty agendas take precedence. This is not to say that the top leaders in the CCP are not to blame for many of China's problems. Believe me, corruption runs rampant there too. But when it comes to taking care of basic needs, leaders of the middle and bottom ranks of government throughout China not only display a ghastly record for promoting the welfare of its residents, but also consciously work to obstruct the centralization of power in China.

[dead WASP]

08:15 AM on 12/29/2010

Good post, Alex.

[Alex Zhang]

09:08 AM on 12/29/2010

Thanks!

[Balzac]

07:29 PM on 12/28/2010

Journalists must be protected. Everyone who participated in this fatal beating should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[MarsAmbassador]

05:22 PM on 12/28/2010

Long live the Fourth Estate, no matter where it is!

[joebaggadonuts]

04:44 PM on 12/28/2010

The Chinese tend to let citizens take matters into their own hands, with sometimes horrific consequences. As American judgeships become more politicized, we will see ourselves with the same kind of vigilante justice meted out by self appointed do-gooders with shared amongst their kind moral imperatives. Here, the journalist was probably getting too close to undoing someone's and their dependents profitable niche, so they took it upon themselves to protect themselves.

We once had a feeling that we could rely on the law to keep us from the madness of crowds and vigilante justice. That time is ending. Learn, America from this, and protect yourselves from the crowd of prying eyes and busybody interferences. Keep your personal views to yourselves. Don't stick out. Don't complain about authority.

Or, reverse course and hold your elected officials accountable, and put good, fair judges into position instead of ones who spout your personal favorite dogma.

But I doubt you can.

[Yellowbird]

04:43 PM on 12/28/2010

The Chinese mafia is very dangerous and not to be messed with.

Any investigation into this will go nowhere.

It has nothing to do with his occupation. It had to do with snooping.

[Sans Octavian]

01:29 AM on 12/29/2010

By mafia, you mean government.

[denisicle]

04:15 PM on 12/28/2010

Why are we doing business with this regime? Now the US government owes them tons of money, which is how they like it, I am sure. More leverage for China, and their insurance against the US trying to curtail their rise in the global market, I am sure.

China, in my estimation, is a threat to the security of the United States, and perhaps much of the world. And now they are curtailing even more rare earth materials to other countries -- materials that are needed to help build everything from computers to electric cars. When is the United States going to wake up, put some brakes on United States corporations operating their businesses in China, and bring jobs back to our continent?

[TStringfellow]

05:13 PM on 12/28/2010

You really don't understand how market economies work in the 21st century do you? Do you really believe Human Rights plays ANY role in the business decisions of multinational corporations?

Divesting from China is simply not a viable option. It won't happen.

[fromfaraway]

07:06 PM on 12/28/2010

How about the 14 trillion owed and still rising daily,borrowed in your name.

[Sans Octavian]

01:31 AM on 12/29/2010

people use the debt number as a scare tactic. the debt won't be paid and the nation whichs holds that debt won't ever call it in. if you think that chinese have the jump on the us you lack any understanding of china and its socio-economic makeup and needs.

[SDLee]

04:00 PM on 12/28/2010

Yahoo moderation is more democratic than HuffPO. Here the scrubbers just cancel everything they disagree with. On Yahoo the users make the first cuts and the moderators only secondarily.

[SDLee]

03:56 PM on 12/28/2010

Two entirely civil comments rejected by the moderator. Explain yourself please.

[Frog in a pot]

03:47 PM on 12/28/2010

China is an american corporation with a chinese flag.They are the new model for our way forward.

[Sans Octavian]

01:32 AM on 12/29/2010

probably the most intriguing and correct assesment of modern day china.

[dead WASP]

08:17 AM on 12/29/2010

Hopefully, they won't end up being an Enron.

[Frog in a pot]

03:05 PM on 12/29/2010

They wont but we will.They actually make things.

[SDLee]

03:18 PM on 12/28/2010

Didn't you ever see "The Big Boss" with Bruce Lee? That's the way business gets don in our small cities and towns.

[LREKing]

05:30 PM on 12/28/2010

"Everything I know I learned from Bruce Lee movies."

[dead WASP]

08:17 AM on 12/29/2010

He was a great teacher!

[SDLee]

02:58 PM on 12/28/2010

That's how we roll in China. We take what we want, when we want it. We have more guns and clubs and that gives us the power.

It's just like the US only in the US our guns and clubs are called DEA, FBI, CIA, ATF, and a hundred others you've never heard of including the federal police service.

[henryberry]

12:16 PM on 12/28/2010

I guess I should consider myself lucky then. In my work as an investigative journalist exposing intertwined crime and corruption throughout the public and private sectors, I've only been the target of a couple of minor asaults, clearly meant as warnings to go along with the three times my car was vandalized, the time someone brandished a rifle at me, the concocted harassment arrest (case dimissed before trial when it became clear I was going to expose false statements in the complaint), illegal wiretap, dead crow placed near my car, menacing lunges toward me...and don't let me forget the numerous times there were attempts to run my car off the road.

The only reason there are not stories like this one or the one on the front page of today's N.Y. Times about Russia is because there are very few American investigaqtive journalists (left alive) willing to pursue the most serious crime and corruption in government and the professions.

But I'm almost getting hopeful. The NY Times has run stories on official gangsterism in China--and just this morning in Russia. Criminals in government and the professions must be getting worried--the NY Times is closing in on them.

[Mik McAllister]

05:50 PM on 12/28/2010

I interviewed with a small local newspaper about 7 years ago, for a position as a reporter.

During the interview I mentioned that some the of the water-use statistics I was seeing didn't make any sense, and that certain large ranches in the area seemed to be having no problems with the water shortage.

Nope. Didn't get the job.

Anybody who says that there is no criminal class in the US is most likely a member of it.

[henryberry]

09:26 AM on 12/29/2010

Right - as I've noted earlier, the only ones who say there isn't class warfare in the US are the ones who are waging it--notably the banksters. And now that the banksters have gotten just about everything they want--a compliant congress, unassailable fortunes, bailouts, etc.--they are crying class warfare whenever someone raises the issue of a balanced, democratic society.

[henryberry]

06:50 PM on 12/28/2010

I forgot to mention - the witness intimidation, threats, illegal wiretap, etc., I have encountered has been occurring in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with the knowledge of Richard Blumenthal, soon to be one of the state's senators in Washington. I'm following developments in the WikiLeaks/Assange story closely, and making comments on news stories as they come out based on my experiences regarding criminal activity and corruption in government agencies at all levels.

As I've been saying, ordinary, decent-minded US citizens have no clue what they are facing in trying to tamp down this criminality and corruption. The sloth, collusion, lack of professionalism, etc., of the media is not simply from economic factors. Gangsterism in government and the professions--e. g., the legal field--account as much in keeping news vital to citizens out of the media. Simply put, most journalists are scared.