In Sichuan Gongxian County, Chinese citizens like Yu Fenglian and her five siblings have been fighting for their rights for years, as the government awarded the forest land left by their parents to a neighboring landowner. Since 2025, the Yu siblings have been confined in Gongxian County, not allowed to leave the county for the past 8 months.
Yu Fenglian expressed to a reporter from Epoch Times, “Why do we have to be monitored and tracked by dozens of strangers in the society, 24 hours a day, restricting our freedom and not allowing us to leave Gongxian County? Along the way of surveillance and tracking, there have been more than a dozen cases of intentional harm towards us, but no one takes care of our reports or calls for help. What kind of society has this become?”
Recently, Yu Fenglian and her brother Yu Fangtang, on behalf of the Yu family, wrote a petition letter to the Gongxian County Party Secretary Sha Zhijie and County Mayor Gao Guo, demanding, “Since the forest ownership certificate cannot be processed in Gongxian County, we only have one request – to have freedom! Let our family of six brothers and sisters leave Gongxian County and seek resolution through legal means at a higher level.”
The forest land, rightfully belonging to the six Yu siblings (Yu Fenglian, Yu Youtang, Yu Zhongtang, Yu Haitang, Yu Futang, Yu Fangtang) as an inheritance from their parents, has been registered under the name of a neighboring landowner. Despite seeking help from authorities and going through judicial procedures, the issue of the forest ownership certificate remains unresolved. The Yu siblings requested a review from the Sichuan Higher People’s Court, but the court terminated the case citing no cause for litigation.
Judges from the Higher People’s Court and the Environmental Resources Court of Yibin City verbally advised the Yu siblings to seek resolution from the local Party committee and government, rather than the court.
In 2022, Liu Xiaobian, the head of the Political and Legal Committee of Yibin City, who was in charge of their case, suggested to the Yu siblings, “Demand that the County Party Secretary of Gongxian County convene an authoritative public hearing under the law in broad daylight.”
On May 13, 2022, a public hearing was held at the sixth-floor meeting room of the Gongxian County Petition Office, chaired by the current head of the county Political and Legal Committee. More than a hundred people attended, including the previous County Party Secretary, media representatives, citizens, People’s Congress delegates, CPPCC members, lawyers, witnesses, as well as leaders from various county-level and city-level departments. Despite the gathering, no final decision was made a year after the public hearing.
Three years have passed since the public hearing, yet the forest ownership certificate issue remains unresolved. The Yu siblings are left with no choice but to seek assistance from higher-level authorities to handle the matter legally.
In order to prevent the Yu siblings from escalating the issue to higher authorities, authorities in Gongxian County have hired individuals to monitor and prevent them from leaving the county since June 2025.
Yu Fenglian lamented, “Being monitored and tracked by strangers 24 hours a day, we have been chased to various government institutions including the County Government, City Government, City Party Committee, City Petition Bureau, Provincial Government, Provincial Party Committee, and outside the Provincial Petition Bureau. They have resorted to violent abductions, dragging me back with nobody intervening. In five instances at the Provincial Government Transfer Center, I was deceived and abducted through violence, getting injured twice along the way. Before being abducted back, they always said, ‘Once you return, the County Mayor and County Party Secretary will solve your problems.'”
“Our issue remains unsolved despite the public hearing being held. Every time I try to leave, I am taken back, and the county’s related departments come up with false stories, claiming that our problem was resolved by the court!”
“Being monitored, restricted in our freedom to leave Gongxian County for 8 months, I have been violently abducted multiple times. The police even fabricated charges to detain me. These individuals monitoring us are using violence to push us to our limits for money. If there weren’t leaders providing them with protection, could they be this audacious and bold? Forcibly restricting our freedom not to leave Gongxian County is a clear violation of the law and a criminal act!” she emphasized.
In conclusion, Yu Fenglian appealed, “This is our final plea to the two leaders in Gongxian County, grant us freedom, let our family of six siblings depart Gongxian County legally to seek assistance from higher authorities. These are demands that the two leaders are capable of meeting!”