A Shanxi mine boss is the alleged instigator. Mining is one of the most profitable, and dangerous, industries in China. For government officials, the victim was a fake journalist trying to extort money out of local investors.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – Unidentified assailants beat to death Lan Chengzhang, a Chinese journalist investigating the mining industry, one of the most dangerous in the country, his paper said. Some reports indicate that a mine boss ordered the attack, upset by the journalist’s investigations.

“Lan Chengzhang was a just-hired journalist who was still in a trial period,” Wang Jianfeng, head of the paper's news department, confirmed. He was killed near a mine in Huiyuan County in the northern province of Shanxi on January 9, officials from the paper said.

The paper has sent a team to investigate the incident and laid complaints with the local police and government, Mr Wang said.

"We will do everything we can to protect the rights of journalists," he said but declined to give any more details, saying: "At this time it is not appropriate to comment further."

According to a local newspaper, 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 surviving journalist accused the Huiyuan mine boss of ordering the thugs to carry out the attack.

City officials however accused Lan of being a "fake journalist" who was out to extort officials in the local mining industry.

Shanxi is China's largest coal producing region and where a large percentage of the nation's mining accidents take place.

The Chinese government has 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 personal profits maximised.

It has tried to put a stop to work-related deaths with new regulations that ban Communist officials from buying equity in mining companies and require local governments to shut down mines that are obsolete or without adequate safety standards.

A total of 4,746 people died working in China's coal mines last year—a death toll of 13 a day, according to official figures. But according to international organisations the real number is around 20,000.

In many cases, mines owners and local authorities hide the accidents to avoid having to shut down the mines.

• china
• shanxi
• Lan
• Chengzhang
• death