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China's Local Censors Muffle an Explosion
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The karaoke owner, known as "the kid" and variously identified as Qu Hua and Qu Yijie, was killed in the blast. His former mistress was taken in for questioning by police, the residents noted.
Qu, they said, was known as a wealthy man who had owned wildcat coal mines in the surrounding hills and dealt in wholesale explosives for small coal mine owners, many of them running illegal operations. His karaoke bar was a center for prostitution and gambling as well as singing, they said, and the bodies of 18 unidentified women were taken from the debris in addition to the 25 reported by authorities. Also among the victims, they added, were two local policemen.
These accounts, from neighbors and other Tian Shifu residents, were impossible to verify. But many playing cards were seen lying about the debris after the site had been bulldozed flat, and employees of the nearby Chuang Ye Department Store said eight of its saleswomen were among the victims.
Journalists for several big-city newspapers and magazines, out of the local censor's grasp, reported some of these details. The Beijing News identified Qu, for instance, and the Beijing-based Legal Daily pinpointed stored explosives as the cause of the blast two days before the official report. One aggressive Internet news site, http:/
But local publications followed the orders to keep silent. In addition, Tian Shifu residents said police had warned them not to talk about the explosion even among themselves. As a result, all were promised anonymity in conversations with a foreign reporter.
At stake, they said, was a compensation payment of up to $26,000 that the government was offering to victims' families. But in any case, they added, it would be dangerous getting on the wrong side of the police in this small country town.
"Every word could lead to trouble," one resident said when asked to explain what he knew about the blast. "We are not even supposed to gossip about it with our neighbors."
Researcher Jin Ling contributed to this report.
