10 January 2007
Lan Chengzhang
Beating
Lan Chengzhang, a journalist for the Beijing-based China Trade News, was beaten by unidentified assailants near a mine in Huiyuan county in Shanxi province on January 9, officials from the paper said.
But according to the Southern Daily newspaper, Lan died in a hospital in the neighbouring city of Datong on January 10. Several men with clubs beat Lan as a fellow reporter was being held at the office of an unnamed Huiyuan county mine boss, the paper said.
The paper said the surviving journalist, who with Lan had been sent to the area to investigate the local coal industry, had accused the Huiyuan mine boss of ordering the thugs to carry out the attack. China's rulers have previously acknowledged that the nation's coal mining industry is wracked by corruption, with local officials often colluding with mine owners so that safety standards are ignored and profits maximised.
