Shanghai petitioner Liu Jiemei, who was forcibly evicted and has persistently sought justice through petitioning, has been kidnapped multiple times and sent to black prisons for persecution. The guards have threatened her, saying, “You’ll be suffocated, and the matter will be resolved.” Liu Jiemei revealed that the community, in an effort to prevent her from petitioning, assigned three to four young men to closely follow her every day, posing a threat to her personal safety.
Originally residing in Hongkou District of Shanghai, Liu Jiemei was illegally evicted in 1999 and has not received proper resettlement since. Her husband engaged in futile activism for their rights, leading to his despairing suicide in 2000.
Liu Jiemei disclosed that without her or her daughter’s knowledge, the local police station relocated her daughter’s household registration without settling it properly, rendering her daughter a “black household” and resulting in her daughter developing a mental illness. “They secretly moved my daughter’s registration so that it was not properly settled. They couldn’t even locate her in Shanghai, so she became a ‘black household.’ It ended all opportunities for my daughter to study abroad, and after eight years, my daughter had a mental breakdown.”
Throughout her petitioning process, Liu Jiemei has frequently been intercepted and sent to black prisons in Shanghai for persecution. She has suffered from cancer and experienced several heart attacks, requiring life-saving measures. “In 2024, I was in a sealed black prison for over 30 days, deprived of air. I also have heart problems. There was only one air conditioner, no windows, and the intention was to suffocate you. They would beat me, threatened to beat me to death, and left me covered in bruises.”
In June and July 2025, Liu Jiemei visited the Shanghai Higher People’s Court twice and was physically assaulted by security personnel, resulting in a fractured nasal bone.
In early August of this year, along with fellow petitioner Gu Guoping, she went to Beidaihe to request a meeting with the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party, but they were intercepted on the way back to Shanghai and monitored by community-appointed individuals.
“The government is coming after me because I am now disrupting their plans. Government officials, the courts, the procuratorates, those with power, colluded with the local police to take bribes.” Liu Jiemei asserted.
Currently, Liu Jiemei is temporarily residing in Hangtou Town, Pudong New Area. She mentioned that the Hongkou District government, along with the Hangtou Town government and the public security department, are monitoring her for stability. The community sends three to four young men to follow her closely every day.
“The officials in Hongkou District are afraid of their corruption being exposed. To maintain their power, they resort to violence against me. They work with the underworld to try to kill me, thinking that by doing so, the case will be closed.” she stated.
With the implementation of new petitioning regulations, it has become even more difficult for petitioners to go to Beijing. Liu Jiemei expressed, “The authorities won’t let us go to Beijing, the police bureau won’t receive us, and the petitions office won’t either.”