November 14, 2008
Qin Xuefeng, a man accused of robbery and extortion, was on trial yesterday in Haidian District Court. The victim in the case, a woman whom the newspaper only identified by the surname Zhang, was reportedly a “well-known TV host in Beijing.”
On December 18th of 2007, Qin called Zhang’s TV station claiming to be the secretary of the director of SARFT. He invited Zhang to host an Olympic-related event at a hotel. Qin later confessed to the police that he saw the name of the SARFT director on TV and then looked up the name of his secretary.
When the two met that same night, Qin robbed Zhang of 1,200 yuan and demanded another one million yuan, the Beijing Morning Post reports. Qin continued to send text messages to Zhang threatening to hurt her family until he was arrested on January 2 of this year.
Also on the front page:
· 50 Chinese students enrolled in Newcastle University in the UK were expelled after their application documents were found to be forged. More at the Daily Mail.
· Taiwan’s former president Chen Shui-bian, now in jail on corruption charges, declared a hunger strike.
· Beijing pledged to raise unemployment benefits for urban residents and build 8.5 million square meters of low-income housing.
- Beijing Morning Post (Chinese): Man who robbed a Beijing TV hostess was on trial