Retired professor of Shanghai University and rights activist Gu Guoping revealed to The Epoch Times that recently, during a conversation about the compensation for the demolition of Gu’s home, the director of the petition office in Changning District of Shanghai and his brother claimed that the unresolved issue was due to Gu Guoping’s demand for five resettlement houses and 100 million yuan in cash compensation. Gu Guoping stated that he never made such a request and accused the petition office director of fabricating his demands.
Gu Guoping’s family, including his parents, brother, and sister-in-law totaling eight people across three households, had their legal private property illegally demolished in 2001. In 2002, the Changning District Court rendered an unjust judgment that reduced the resettlement compensation rights of his family from three households to two. Since then, Gu Guoping has been representing his family to seek their legitimate rights through petitioning.
During the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 2026, various district governments in Shanghai issued control fees ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan to petitioners to prevent them from traveling to Beijing. It was reported that each petitioner in Changning District received around 5800 yuan, but Gu Guoping’s brother was inexplicably denied the control fee.
On the morning of April 22nd, Gu’s brother spoke with Lai, the director of the petition office in Zhoujiaqiao Street, Changning District, to inquire about the reasons for the unpaid control fee and the unresolved demolition issue for 25 years. The entire conversation was recorded by Gu’s brother. Afterward, Gu Guoping learned from the recording that the director of the petition office claimed that the prolonged petition issue of their family was due to Gu’s alleged demand for five houses and 100 million yuan compensation.
Gu Guoping was angered and puzzled by the director’s claims. He told The Epoch Times, “I have never made such a request. They fabricated my demands and reported to the higher authorities and the central government that my demands were excessive and unreasonable, hence should not be resolved.”
Gu Guoping said, “My private property was illegally demolished without any legal procedures. They forced me to sign a ‘vacant house takeover form,’ which has no legal basis according to Chinese law. This illegal document led to the forced demolition of my house. However, this unlawful piece of evidence, the ‘vacant house takeover form,’ was considered legal in court. This is the evil of the Chinese Communist Party, distorting right and wrong!”
Six months later, the government provided Gu Guoping with a 60-square-meter resettlement house, an old building with severe roof leaks and incomplete water and electricity facilities. Despite being initially informed that it was a temporary transitional house, the government later insisted that it was a permanent resettlement house. Gu Guoping highlighted that the area of the house was around 60 square meters, 20 square meters less than the normal policy requirement of about 80 square meters.
Gu Guoping expressed, “The Chinese Communist Party has failed to resolve a very common case that should have been promptly corrected, dragging it out for 25 years and erasing a third of my precious life. Throughout this process, I endured 25 years of suffering, with both my parents being forced to death in nursing homes. I faced continuous repression and persecution, either ending up in black jails or under criminal detention, or even being sentenced to prison.”
During his rights protection efforts, Gu Guoping had four ribs broken by police and security guards in a black jail, falsely accused and sentenced to a year and a half in prison for breaking someone else’s ribs five times. In 2008, he was beaten by Beijing office police while queuing at the national office, keeping him bedridden for half a year.
He further stated, “Under the long-term suppression of the Chinese Communist Party, I have been in a highly oppressive and unreasonable environment that has broken me down physically. Now, I suffer from multiple illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, and a series of heart, stomach, and kidney problems.”
He lamented, “Is it wrong for me to defend my legitimate rights and uphold the dignity of the law? The Shanghai authorities of the Chinese Communist Party are an extremely vicious and adept at disguising public opinion, a very malicious regime. These events should allow the international community to recognize the inhumanity and anti-human behavior of the CCP towards its dissenting people.”