Beijing Youth Daily
November 23, 2009

Le Qian, vice editor-in-chief of the Hebei Youth Daily, was beaten on Saturday night while waiting for an elevator in her apartment building in Shijiazhuang.

The assailant fled after a neighbor opened a door, and Le was rushed to the hospital.

From the newspaper's own report, which was reprinted in today's Beijing Youth Daily, where Le worked until moving to the Hebei paper in 2006:

Le Qian recalls that during the episode, an assailant repeatedly struck at her head with a brick but did not attempt to seize her money or personal belongings.

Afterward, a reporter for this paper who returned to the scene found water and food that Le had purchased lying scattered on the ground outside the elevator. When she was beaten, Le's phone was not stolen, and the assailant had not taken the wallet from the pocket of her coat.

A police officer investigating the scene told the reporter that according to the area and witness descriptions, the suspect was indeed only interested in causing harm, rather than carrying out a robbery.

Le Qian speculated on the attacker's motive:

I don't have family in Shijiazhuang, and I don't have any social contacts apart from the news. The person kept saying "This is for your report, this is for your report," when beating me. I'm thinking that it could be that one of Hebei Youth Daily's watchdog pieces that made someone angry. Hebei Youth Daily frequently runs watchdog journalism and rights-protection reports, and those have probably made some people unhappy. But those reports are based on reason and evidence, and they're speaking for ordinary people.