Whistle-blowing Chinese journalist vows to continue exposing corruption as Beijing prosecutors drop charges of defamation

Whistle-blowing journalist Liu Hu has vowed to continue with investigative journalism, after Beijing prosecutors decided not to indict him with defamation for posting online reports about corrupt officials.

Liu Hu was arrested by Beijing police in August 2013, after he posted a series of articles online alleging the corruption of several officials, some of them at vice-ministerial level.

Liu, who had been working with Guangzhou’s New Express at the time, was released on bail after almost a year in August 2014. Prosecutors in Beijing told him on Thursday that his charge had been dropped, due to insufficient evidence.

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“I will still go after clues about corruption if I have them,” said Liu Hu, 40, now a reporter with Chongqing’s Changjiang Times. “It’s not that I fear anything, but I might publish [allegations] in the paper, instead of putting them online in my name,” he said.

Liu’s arrest in 2013 raised eyebrows as the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog had pledged to “get to the bottom” of graft as part of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign, and Liu seemed to be helping.

Two of the officials mentioned in Liu’s posts, including former China Resources chairman Song Lin, were targeted by corruption inspectors in the months following Liu’s arrest. The party announced an investigation into Song last April. Yet Liu remained in custody until last August, when he was released on bail.