Skepticism follows Yunnan prison death's citizen investigation

From China Daily:

The 7,200-word report detailed the committee's one-day visit to Jinning prison on a timeline, and recounted conversations between the members and the government officials on a word-for-word basis. However, it made no attempt to determine the cause of Li's death.

"This report is definitely not the one that 'deciphers' or 'exposes the truth of' the incident of 'hide-and-seek', we can only guarantee that our conscience and responsibility is served on this day, the rest is for members of online community to discuss," the report concludes.

The committee had no access to police tapes or first-hand witnesses, rendering the whole effort more or less "meaningless."

But the gov't must have known a candidly useless report would never satisfy the online masses, who responded to the disappointing report by hacking into the official government website.

So was the new investigation was merely a cheap publicity stunt or a genuine baby step towards government accountability? It's unfortunately hard to tell.