An ongoing investigation into the death of a seafood vendor has highlighted the darker side of the Chinese seafood trade. The vendor died in the southern city of Zhanjiang, considered the shrimp capital of China, in what appears to be a case of extortion.
A vendor surnamed Zhang was abducted from the Xiashan District Seafood Wholesale market on 3 March in Zhanjiang, which is also base to key shrimp firms like Guolian Aquatic.
According to a report on the Zhanjiang TV station, three “thugs” beat Zhang and abducted him in a black Audi Saloon before returning an hour later, at which point they took CNY 100,000 (USD 15,200, EUR 14,000) in cash. The seafood vendor, however, died at the scene from injuries sustained in the attack.
The case has gotten national attention in China since the victim’s family launched a campaign asking for a more thorough investigation – Zhang’s death had been certified as “natural” by police until his family protested.
Video stills, published by local newspapers, show two youths in black leather jackets beating the vendor and bundling him into the Audi. Southern China has traditionally been a hotbed of activity for criminal gangs like the triads, who operate extortion and smuggling networks in mainland China and Hong Kong, and increasingly, internationally.
But the case has also highlighted increasing frustration with the inefficiency of local police forces, which have frequently declined to investigate suspicious cases. Recently, both mainstream Chinese media and China’s social media channels erupted in outrage after police neglected to investigate an attempted kidnapping of a young woman in a Beijing hotel by a criminal gang of pimps.
