The mysterious death of a university student in China after an alleged disagreement with a train conductor and a chat with police has sparked online alarm about public safety — and an official probe.
According to a report by the Oriental Morning Post, 23-year-old Zhao Wei was on his way from the northern city of Tianjin to his home in Inner Mongolia in January ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations when he met his untimely death.
The report — quoting an online post by Zhao's sisters, whose account of events was based on a conversation with a friend riding the same train — says Zhao complained to the conductor about an attendant who had teased him.
Zhao came to see his friend at around 10:00 pm that night, saying he might have offended the conductor. He changed seats with his classmate's neighbour so that they could sit together, it says.
At around 3:00 am, railway police came to take Zhao away, the newspaper said. That was the last time his friend saw him alive.
Police told Zhao's parents he had jumped from a railway building in Daqing, a city en route to his destination. When they asked to see security camera footage or photos of the place where he died, authorities said there were none.
They finally got to see their son's body, which was covered in bruises and cuts. An autopsy found there was also serious damage to his internal organs, the report said.
Railway authorities have since sent a team to investigate, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported last week — lending some credence to the idea that Zhao's death was not a suicide.
The case has stirred up huge concern about the safety of ordinary Chinese citizens among Internet users, many of whom believe authorities were responsible for Zhao's death.
"What's wrong with this society? How can it be that way?" one web user said on popular Internet portal sina.com.
Two popular posts on the topic have been reposted more than 110,000 times and drawn a combined total of 24,000 comments on Sina's Twitter-like microblogging service.
But there has been no coverage of the story from mainstream media and very few online comments since last week.
"That suggests Chinese media have been directed not to report this story," David Bandurski, a researcher at the Hong Kong-based China Media Project who is tracking the issue, told AFP.
"There seems to be a rather comprehensive attempt to keep the story out of the spotlight. Bans like this are something we generally expect to see ahead of the annual National People's Congress, which is going on right now."
The country's annual session of parliament began on Saturday — two days after the last report on the story.
Railway police in Daqing and Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province where the train was going through, admitted knowing about the case but refused to comment when contacted by AFP.
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