Hero

Li Jianjun

For the past 10 years, Li Jianjun has been waging a battle against corruption in China. Li, 36, began working as an investigative journalist in his home province of Shanxi in the north of the country, where he exposed cases of corruption in the police. He was sacked in 2011 but didn’t back down. Between 2012 and 2013, he took on the head of the state-owned conglomerate China Resources Holdings Co, Song Lin. Despite death threats and kidnap attempts, Li even took a minority shareholding in the company as part of his investigation. In April 2013, he highlighted irregularities in contracts signed between China Resources Holdings Co and three mining companies in Shanxi. “They must go down and go to jail,” Li has said. “Only then could I feel safe, and I would be making a big service for public interests as well.” Following an investigation by the Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Song Lin was removed from office on April 19 .

Published on