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12/15/2008: "Chinese reporter chasing corruption claims disappears"
A Chinese newspaper reporter investigating a suspicious real estate deal who has not been seen since five men pushed him into a car two weeks ago has been accused of bribery, in the second such case this month.
Guan's disappearance highlights the danger to reporters probing corruption in a country where officials are often close to business while also wielding power over police and courts.
Killings of reporters are virtually unheard of, but beatings, detentions and arrests are a risk for those who take on the powerful.
[ This sort of thing scandalizes typical northern Europeans because corruption is most alien the further you go towards Scandinavia. Is it something in the air? Is it just luck that Scandinavian culture just happens to be like that? No, it is biological. But now even these northern countries are increasingly ruled by corrupt politicians and "officials are often close to business while also wielding power over police and courts". They get away with as much as they can, and as the population becomes changed ethnically and loses its traditional chararacter, the corruption will spread. ]
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE4BE0R820081215