Killing silences Chinese graft reporter

By Jeremy Page

XIAN, China (Reuters): If China was looking for a martyr in its war against corruption, Feng Zhaoxia was the perfect candidate.

The farmer-turned-journalist braved death threats and break- ins at his home to expose corrupt officials and violent criminal gangs in Xi'an, capital of northern Shaanxi province.

But when Feng was found with his throat cut in a ditch on the outskirts of Xi'an in January, there were no official eulogies.

Police hastily concluded that Feng committed suicide and a chilling silence descended on the case.

Incredulous relatives say they were told the case was closed and they should not cause trouble. The provincial government banned local media from reporting on his death.

Now family and colleagues, convinced Feng was murdered for his exposes, are struggling to clear his name, bring his killers to justice and win compensation for his jobless widow and two teenaged children.

The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has also taken up his cause, writing a letter to Shaanxi governor Cheng Andong demanding a new investigation.

"He had no reason to commit suicide," said one angry relative, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. "He had a happy, healthy family, a good job and no psychological problems."

"We used to trust the government and the police. Now we have lost hope."

The case offers a window into an underworld of violent criminals and corrupt officials that is eroding faith in the Communist Party.

And it highlights the severe risks and scant legal protection for those who dare to expose them.

China lifted the lid this year on a network of Communist Party officials and police that committed torture, murder and blackmail in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

State media have exposed a gang, including party officials, which murdered 10 people in the central province of Henan.

Feng, a journalist and editor on Xi'an's Gejie Daobao, had made a name for himself as a fearless investigative reporter with a series of articles on corruption and organized crime written under a pen name.

One exposed a model Communist Party cadre as a former gang leader who spent 10 years in jail for robbery.

Another accused local officials of taking bribes to allow people to switch their registration from one village to another.

A third probed into waste and embezzlement of public funds for road construction.

"He wasn't afraid of anything," said the relative. "That was just his character. He never told us about the dangers of his job."

The son of a teacher, Feng worked as a farmer but bombarded newspapers with articles hoping to get a job in journalism.

He had his first break in 1980. He rose through the ranks, winning several awards, before he was snapped up by the provincial Gejie Daobao in 1996.

"He was very bright, very cultured," recalled another relative. "He was determined to make a contribution to society."

Feng lived alone in a sparsely-furnished rented room in Xi'an, and often worked late into the night. He returned home to his family in Fengxiang once every two weeks.

"He was quite reserved, but very earnest, and a very good journalist," said a fellow reporter in Xi'an. "He was liked and respected."

But Feng's ground-breaking reports won him enemies too.

His room in Xi'an was broken into several times, relatives say. He told colleagues he received an anonymous death threat by telephone. And two men once openly threatened to take revenge for an article that compromised them, local reporters say.

On Jan. 14, Feng moved to another rented room in Xi'an, telling colleagues he was being followed and feared for his life.

His body was found the next day.

Police say there was no evidence of a struggle and Feng had scratched a suicide note in the earth beside his corpse.

"Police have already concluded that he committed suicide," said an official from the Shaanxi foreign affairs office. "There is no need to re-open the investigation."

But relatives say they never saw the suicide note. They say Feng called home the previous day in high spirits to plan for the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

And those who identified the body say there was a gash 10 centimeters long and 4 cm deep in his throat and no blood on his clothes.

"Are you telling me he did this to himself?" asked one journalist in Xi'an.

Feng's family and colleagues say efforts to re-open the investigation have been re-buffed out of hand at every level.

Xi'an, like many Chinese cities, is a hotbed of institutionalized graft, residents say.

Several senior officials were implicated in corruption scandals in Xi'an last year, according to state media reports.

In January, a former manager of a state firm in Xi'an was executed for gambling away 50 million yuan (US$6 million) of public funds in Macau in what state media called one of the biggest corruption cases since the Communists took power in 1949.

RSF General Secretary Robert Menard expressed deep concern over Feng's death and his family's insistence that he would not commit suicide.

"This doubt must prompt the authorities to re-open the investigation and not cover up the crime against a courageous journalist," he said in a statement.

In the meantime, Feng's wife must find a way to support her children with no income.

"We never thought this could happen to ordinary people like us," said one relative. "Feng loved his work and he ended up sacrificing everything."