Life imitates art in Chinese murder-extortion plot

Dark Secrets of Death in China's Mine Shafts

For fans of Chinese film director Li Yang, the crimes followed a familiar script. In his 2002 film Blind Shaft, an extortion plot targets a coal mine boss who, in exchange for their silence, pays off a pair of mine workers who murdered a coworker and masked the death as an accident.

In the movie, the killers and victims were strangers. Huang, however, not only knew the victims but was their kin. Indeed, all the actors in Huang's plot were from the Chengde area of Hebei Province, just north of Beijing, and most knew each other.

The film's storyline is built around the uniquely Chinese phenomenon of what are commonly called "illegal" coal mines. These include underground mines of various sizes that operate secretly and without business licenses, often in remote areas, and require collusion between mine bosses and local government officials.

At the court hearing, Zhang freely wept and repeatedly claimed innocence. Yet she failed to weaken the prosecution's argument that her quickie marriage to Han was clearly part of a scheme to murder him. Indeed, he died just nine days after the newlyweds moved to Beijing from Chengde.

Huang told the court he had suggested Zhang divorce her former husband because he was abusive. But his advice went farther. "Divorce and find someone else and then kill him," he told Zhang, according to his court testimony. "You can make a little money."

Huang said he learned the art of mine-shaft extortion from others. "If you do this, you can make money fast," he told Zhang, according to testimony. "You can extort 200,000 or 300,000 yuan for one person's life."

Huang told the court he was an experienced murderer, and proved his point by saying that he suggested Zhang "find a bachelor with very few family members. Then it's easy for you to get money.

"If you go after relatives, they won't be suspicious."'

More details here.