An employee with a Chinese website has been sentenced at a Beijing court to four years in jail for trying to extort 475,000 U.S. dollars from a health product company.

Public prosecutors said Li Ling, who worked for a website that handles consumer complaints, posed as a reporter in September last year and approached a company saying he was investigating complaints about its aloe products, Chaoyang District Court heard.

Even though he was unable to identify any problems, Li asked the company to pay him 3.8 million yuan (475,000 U.S. dollars) in "silence money". He said he would write a negative report about the company if his demand was not met.

Having tipped off the police, the company handed over 100,000 yuan (12,500 dollars) to Li in a hotel room on June 25. Police arrested him when he left the room.

Li, whose family was in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan province, said his father was seriously ill and he needed the money. He pleaded guilty at the end of the trial.

Li was sentenced at the same court to five months forced labour under detention in April last year.

Other cases of blackmail involving "reporters", often "reporters" without formal certificates, were reported earlier this year. In most cases, they contacted companies with problems and asked for "silence money", threatening them with negative reports.

China's press administration reviews reporters' conduct annually. It revokes certificates of reporters who behave improperly.

China has about 150,000 officially-recognized reporters who hold press cards issued by the General Administration of Press and Publication. A total of 700,000 people work in the press.

Source: Xinhua