From Yulun Jiandu (link), translated by CDT:
In a letter addressed to Zhang Chunxian, Hunan’s provincial party secretary, a whistle blower from a village in Yizhang County of Chenzhou laid out his efforts to report on corruption and the life-threatening tribulation he has gone through with his family.
Huang Yuanxun, a farmer who taught himself about law and became a famous spokesperson for his fellow villagers in their petitions and fights for rights, reported to county officials about a local gangster group gobbling up a coal mine by bribing county and township officials. An investigation by the Chenzhou City government confirmed Huang’s reporting and detained the gangster head and involved officials.
The gangster group members then bribed some officials of the party discipline inspection committee of the city, who set the gangster head free and allowed the gang group to regain the coal mine.
Under the gang’s operation, the coal mine had several major accidents, caused the sinking of 115 acres of farmland, and cut off the drinking water for many villagers. The coal mine was notorious for its safety record and was specifically named by the top official of the state coal mine safety agency in a rage. Many of Huang’s fellow villagers worked for the coal mine for five years but have not yet been paid for their wages totaling 900,000 yuan ($120,000).
Zhang made more than 200 trips to the county, city and Beijing to petition about the coal mine but no result came out of his debt-incurring petitioning efforts. He was even threatened by the party secretary of his township that, if he went to complain again, police would get him.
He was, indeed, detained for 15 days by the county police bureau in June 2005, for “calling provincial safety administration and the media to report coal mine safety accidents of Yizhang County to spread rumors and disrupt social order.”
One villager privately told him that he had been told that someone had put more than 100,000 yuan up for his head. His daughters-in-law cried to him, hoping he would give up his fight against corruption.
“I know my strength is so small,” Huang said in his letter to the party secretary. “But I see today it is the Communist Party of China that is governing, and group after group of corrupt officials are being punished. We have a bright future for our homeland and a rejuvenated nation.”
At the end of his letter, he noted that he doesn’t know whether the result will be good or bad, and that he wanted to share his tribulation with the provincial party secretary and the whole society.
