First reported death in liuzhi detention

China recently instituted the Supervisory Commission system as a way of replacing (and putting on a sound legal footing) the Party disciplinary system of shuanggui (“double-designation”). It seems like the replacement is pretty thoroughgoing: apparent deaths from torture took place in the shuanggui system, and now we have a report of one in the new system. (“Liuzhi” (留置) is the Chinese term used for “detention” in the Supervisory Commission system.) In this case, the driver for a local leader in Fujian was being investigated. His family reported that his body was covered with bruises. The report, from Caixin Media, was quickly scrubbed from the Caixin site (those who keep talking about how happy Chinese are with their government and never mention the state’s control over information: are you listening?), but Google Cache got it and I’ve preserved it at the perma.cc site.

Thanks to Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch for the pointer.