盲井式犯罪(mángjĭngshì fànzuì): Blind Shaft style crime

Two men persuade a third to join them to work in a coal mine and then kill him in one of the shafts, arranging the scene to look like an accident. They then pose as his relatives and extort compensation from the mine owner in return for staying silent.

That is the story of the 2003 movie Blind Shaft; yet similar incidents have been revealed nationwide since 2014. In Shisun village, Southwestern China's Yunnan province, it even became the main profession of many villagers.

In a recent trial in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 74 defendants, of which more than 40 came from the village, were charged with having killed 17 victims in this way.

They even formed a chain, in which everybody had a role to play: The men were in charge of luring victims to work in the coal mines, killing them, and arranging the scenes, while the women pretended to be "families" of the victims and asked the coal mine owners for compensation.

When there is an accident in a coal mine, the owner of the mine and local safety officials face punishments according to the number of deaths. Thus both the coalmine owners and officials often bribe victims' families so that they remain silent. Scholars call for stricter law enforcement to curb such evil deeds.