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Chinese police apologise after Caixin reporter’s ‘prostitution bust’ hotel room inspection

  • Zhou Chen says she was followed and police suddenly entered her room late at night when she was in Fujian province covering a chemical leak
  • Four policemen overstepped their jurisdiction and ‘caused negative social effects’, Quanzhou Public Security Bureau says

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Caixin reporter Zhou Chen was in Quanzhou to cover the aftermath of a chemical spill last week. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Police have confirmed a female reporter’s claim that she was subjected to surveillance and a hotel room inspection like a “prostitution bust” while she was covering a chemical leak in southeast China last week.

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The Quanzhou Public Security Bureau on Tuesday issued an apology and said four policemen – three of whom were from an auxiliary unit – had overstepped their jurisdiction and “caused negative social effects”.

A deputy bureau chief had been “punished”, while another local police station chief would “make amends” to the local Communist Party committee, the bureau in Fujian province said in a statement, without elaborating. One of the policemen involved has also been suspended.

Caixin reporter Zhou Chen had been covering a chemical leak in the city’s Quangang district when the incident happened, according to her account in Caixin Weekly on Monday.

“I never thought the ‘prostitution bust’ scene from TV shows would ever happen to me,” Zhou wrote, describing how, on November 11, the four policemen suddenly entered her room at around 11.30pm while she was in her pyjamas. She was told to produce her identification card and the four men then searched the bathroom and balcony for “people hiding there”.

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The reporter said they left after warning her to be aware of her personal safety. The policemen did not have a warrant to search her room as is required by Chinese law, according to Zhou.

Villagers are treated in hospital on November 9 after the chemical leak. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Villagers are treated in hospital on November 9 after the chemical leak. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
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