Several weeks ago, the China Media Project analyzed the story of Zhao Wei (赵伟), a college student who died mysteriously on his way home to Inner Mongolia ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday this year. It has now become clear that the story has been effectively covered up by press control authorities, fizzling out with a boilerplate news release from the official Xinhua News Agency saying that the situation has been resolved to the satisfaction of everyone. Tania Branigan reports at the Guardian.

This much is certain: on a freezing January evening, a 23-year-old student boarded a train to inner Mongolia, to spend the Chinese new year with his family. Zhao Wei never reached home. By early next morning, he was dead.
Police said he had jumped to his death from a building at a railway station halfway along the line. But an online letter signed in his parents’ names offers another, chilling version of events. It alleges he was led away by railway police after a petty dispute with train staff; that his corpse was covered in unexplained injuries; that officials had “left a hundred questions unanswered” and that he was murdered.