Rights group condemns detention of Chinese journalists after corruption report

BEIJING, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) late on Tuesday condemned the detention of two independent Chinese journalists, one a prominent investigative reporter, after they published a story alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China.

The Paris-headquartered advocacy group said journalists Wu Yingjiao and Liu Hu, who gained national recognition more than a decade ago for uncovering graft among high-profile figures, were detained on Sunday in China’s Sichuan province.

Police in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, said in a statement on Monday they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu, a 34-year-old man surnamed Wu and others on suspicion of “making false accusations” and “illegal business operations.”

The statement added that they had been placed under “criminal coercive measures” – a legal term that typically refers to detention.

The authorities only provided their surnames, but several Chinese media and RSF identified the two as Liu Hu and Wu Yingjiao.

Police authorities in Chengdu did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The arrests followed the January 29 publication of a co-authored investigative report on the social media platform WeChat which examinined alleged corruption involving Pu Fayou, the Communist Party secretary of Pujiang county in Sichuan.

Pu could not be immediately reached for comment.

The report has since been deleted from WeChat, a common step taken by censors in cases involving sensitive government exposes.

Liu is a former investigative reporter at New Express. He was detained by Beijing police in 2013 on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for allegedly “fabricating and spreading rumours”, but was later released on bail after spending 364 days in detention, said RSF.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, RSF’s advocacy manager for the Asia-Pacific region, said the detention of the two journalists highlights a “restrictive and hostile” environment for independent reporting in China.

“We call on the international community to intensify pressure on the Chinese regime, rather than pursue a normalisation of relations that only enables further repression and allows the authorities to continue targeting reliable reporters,” Bielakowska said.

Leaders of many democratic nations from South Korea, Canada to the United Kingdom have visited Beijing this year as they seek to improve relations with China amid ongoing trade and security tensions with the United States.

China ranked 178 out of 180 in the 2025 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. The group identifies the country as the world’s largest jailer of journalists.

(Reporting by Liz Lee and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Antoni Slodkowski and Michael Perry)