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 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 10pm that night, saying he might have offended the conductor. He changed seats with his classmate’s neighbor so that they could sit together, it says.
At around 3am, 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, Xinhua news agency reported last week — lending some credence to the idea that Zhao’s death was not a suicide.
The incident has stirred up concern about the safety of ordinary Chinese 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.
However, there has been no coverage of the story from mainstream media and very few online comments since last week.
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