The Beijing Times, March 17, 2010

Although today is St. Patrick's Day, the Beijing Times went with a story about the passing of He Pingping (何平平), who, at 74.61cm, was the shortest man on earth. This Beijing Times report comes several days later than the global media, which reported on He's death on March 15. The picture shows his meeting with the tallest man on earth, Bao Xishun (鲍喜顺), also Mongolian, in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

However, the bottom right of the front page was taken up by a story about the latest case of "accidental" death, of Chen Xujin (陈绪金), in a detention center. The incident occurred in the Xiushui county (修水县) of the city of Jiujiang (九江市), Jiangxi province. Beijing Times reports:

The police say that he fell over going to the toilet and died suddenly. Later, the hospital's autopsy stated that he had had a heart attack. The autopsy said that many chronic diseases had led to the "loss of functioning of the heart, lungs and many other organs." The family are suspicious that he was beaten to death, because according to the police investigation, on the night the incident happened Chen Xujin was beaten by the people who detained him in the jail.

The doctor who had made the diagnosis said that they had been "demanded" (被要求) and "couldn't do anything" (没办法) so they wrote it down as a heart attack. At present the procuratorate is investigating this case, and the chief of the detention center of Xiushui county has been dismissed.

A nephew and a niece of the deceased turned up to inspect the body, realizing that there were wounds around the neck and on the head, and that it did not look like a natural death, but more like the victim had been slammed against a wall. There is a description of the man in question:

Chen Xujin, 45, is from Xiushui county, and used to be employed by the county's tea research department. Two years ago his wife left him without going through any divorce proceedings and then his only daughter married, leaving him to live alone. Chen is a delivery man for a shop that sells alcohol, and had kept a bottle of grain alcohol worth 6,000 yuan in his home. His boss called the police when he discovered this and on January 4th this year, Chen was criminally detained on charges of theft, in the number 6 jail of the detention house.

After the case of sudden death occurred, Chen Xujin's arrest was approved on January 13. But his relatives have said that from his detainment to the arrest, no-one had received any notice or documentation. On February 11, Chen Xujin called a relative from the detention house. The relatives then knew where he was; they had thought that he was lost.

The Beijing Times article was according to a Southern Metropolis Daily report.

Related, on Sina's microblog, Ye Hu (夜壶), posted a list of people who have died in suspicious ways in detention houses, including by "drinking hot water," by "breathing" and by "having a shower." (Need to be logged in to view.)