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Two Arrested in Murder of Henan “Gutter Oil” Reporter
By wchung | 07 Jun, 2026

Two men were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of having murdered a Henan province TV journalist who had blogged about carcinogenic cooking oil. Police had recently detained 32 people and seized 100 tons of the oil in a crackdown in 14 provinces.

Li Xiang, 30, was stabbed more than 10 times early Monday outside the gate of his community as he returned from visiting a karaoke bar with friends. A gatekeeper found Li lying on the street after rushing out on hearing a cry of “robber”.

Li’s murder is seen by some as an act of revenge for his microblog postings about a suspected underground factory that illegally recycled kitchen oil commonly referred to as “gutter oil”. Police originally classified the killing as a murder-robbery because Li’s laptop was missing. However, they are keeping open the possibility of other motives because Li had been stabbed so many times. A reward of 20,000 yuan ($3,100) is being offered for information about the killing.

The deputy director of the office in which Li had been working opined that Li’s work was unlikely to have been the motive for the murder. Two months earlier Li had been transferred from reporting on agricultural topics to legal news in which he sourced stories from judicial offices and the local procuratorate, rarely engaging in investigative work. Li’s latest blog posting dated Sept. 15 on gutter oil had been a repost of a story from other media.

Li was to be married in October. He was described by colleagues as “outgoing, honest” and good at his job.