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In February, the girl was forcibly taken away by two strange men in a car and driven to the camp in faraway Shandong province, only escaping four months later, the paper reported. In an online journal, she later complained that trainers had beaten students for no reason and ordered those who did not behave to eat in front of the pit latrine.

In a journal post published on Aug. 25, she wrote: “When you mentioned it to your relatives, they all said: ‘Isn’t it all in the past? We love you, you should forget all those things.’ ”

“I am angry. People point at my nose and call me unfilial and worse than a beast,” she wrote. “It was them who sent me there. It was them who cursed me and beat me, it was them who sabotaged my life and libeled my character; but it was also them who said they loved me. My friends here, if it were you, what would you do?”

The post went on: “I will use their money to practice boxing and martial arts, and ambush them later. I will make them disabled, if not die.”

The girl shot photographs and video of her mother tied up in the chair, demanding thousands of dollars from her aunt to release her, ostensibly so she could go to a physics school in the city of Harbin.

The money was sent, but by then the girl discovered her mother was already dying. She called an ambulance, but it arrived too late to save her mother.

Thepaper.cn said it had received calls from several students at the camp since running the story. The students complained of being beaten, cursed at and insulted, and even being watched when using the bathroom.