Huang Jingao, the secretary of the Lianjiang county committee in Fujian province, has been facing intimidation from his superiors and the underworld, but Huang claims that he won’t ignore the corruption even if he may be sacked. Huang has worn a bulletproof vest for six years and has written his will twice. Huang also knows that it’s impossible to break through the “unspoken” rules in the political arena, and it’s enough to arouse the public’s discussion by publicizing his letter. After the media publicized his SOS letter, his plight has become high-profile news, and Internet surfers give him a warm and energetic response as well.

According to an August 12 report from the Oriental Morning Daily, Mr. Huang wrote in his letter that he has needed to wear a bulletproof vest to go to work for several years since he investigated the severe corruption case involving 60 million yuan (US$7.2 million) in his area of responsibility. He said he has been under huge pressure from his superiors and the underworld society, so that he has no defense but to deliver letters to the media to ask for assistance.

Huang Jingao said he has become an eyesore to some people and a thorn in their side due to his anti-corruption campaign. However, he hopes this case will be be granted a hearing in a public, and just trial, through his delivery of letters to the media. Huang said he is not afraid of being disposed of and is ready to go home to sell red potatoes for living.

While investigating the corruption scandal of the Jiangbin Road construction, he was not only deterred by related government agencies but was also threatened by assassins from the underworld. Under this dangerous and ambiguous situation, Huang Jingao had written his “will” twice while attempting to make up his mind to completely probe the suspected scam, even if he would be fired.

In his letter to the media, Huang said he’s been up against unspoken rules in the political arena, so that some people feel uncomfortable. He indicated that these rules are that government officials always protect each other, dissolve large wrongdoing into small matters, and do one thing on the platform but do another thing under the table. There’s been an unchecked phenomenon in the political arena that government officials always deceive their superiors and fool the civilians. Once something goes wrong, they try to cover it up instead of coming up with solutions to improve things. They always delay the irregularities lest their political future be affected. This has become a vicious cycle.

Nevertheless, in his opinion, it’s impossible to break through the unspoken rules in politics. It’s enough to arouse public discussion by publicizing his letter.
After Huang’s letter was disseminated on websites, it became a high profile topic among Internet surfers. Many surfers have made comments strongly supporting Huang Jingao. Some surfers expressed their opinions about how to carry out anti-corruption actions by setting up an institutional mechanism.

One surfer said that Huang needs to wear a bulletproof vest for the sake of protecting himself from attacks by vicious groups. Indeed, in some places, vicious syndicates collude with corrupt officials against the bitterly hated, brave anti-corruption officials. These evil people are so flippant and impudent that they dare use arms with impunity. That the Secretary of the County Committee would need to wear a bulletproof vest to launch an anti-corruption campaign would have been beyond imagination ten years ago.

One surfer posted three acknowledgement letters on the Internet that were displayed for the county government to see. These letters praised Huang Jingao for not being afraid of the authorities, for daring to break through the iron curtain formed by bureaucracy, and for expressing the voice of civilians.