Chinese blogger stabbed after public reading

Source: AP

A Chinese blogger whose satirical postings have gained a wide following was stabbed in the stomach at a Beijing book store after giving a reading, witnesses and friends said Monday.

Xu Lai, who writes under the pseudonym Qian Liexian, was attacked Saturday evening at the Wanda branch of the Beijing Danxiangjie Book Store, a staffer there confirmed Monday.

He was meeting readers "and it happened after that," said the clerk, who declined to give her name as is common among Chinese. She gave no other details.

Xu, who is also culture editor at the Beijing News paper, was apparently stabbed in the store's bathroom by two men who later fled, according to friends and fellow bloggers who posted the news online.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/16/entertainment/e023957S54.DTL

---

sounds like an obvious attempt by the Chinese government to shut this guy up and send a message to others not to rock to proverbial boat

They're starting to gain traction again as China gradually opens up to the West.

a disgruntled member of some kind of opposing political faction.

send thugs after someone

sort of like the Mafia