A 70-year-old petitioner, Xu Dongqing from Jiangsu, passed away on May 25 after enduring years of suppression and persecution in the fight for her rights. Amidst her passing, her husband Yang Guoliang was severely injured and hospitalized due to an assault orchestrated by authorities at the funeral. Meanwhile, her daughter Yang Li is suffering from end-stage uremia, facing obstacles in her treatment imposed by the authorities. Xu Dongqing’s daughter, Yang Caiying, who resides in Japan, expressed concerns that the authorities are implementing a plan to obliterate her family.
Yang Caiying revealed in an interview with the media that during her sister Yang Li’s detention at the Binhu Police Station in January, the station chief Zhang Kaijie openly mentioned confiscating their entire family property and leaving them destitute after the deaths of her sister and parents. She emphasized that the authorities are indeed executing the plan to destroy the family. She further elaborated on the violence and pressure her family faced during the mourning period following Xu Dongqing’s death.
On the evening of May 26, when Xu Dongqing’s brother-in-law assaulted her father at the wake, Yang Li made numerous calls to the police for help, but no assistance was provided. This lack of intervention raised suspicions that the authorities were complicit in the violent incident. Despite the efforts of the family and other petitioners to seek help, the police remained unresponsive, solidifying the belief that the violence was premeditated.
The family raised questions regarding the undercover police officers posing as medical personnel attending to Xu Dongqing during her illness, leading to suspicions of foul play. They captured the interactions on video but received no satisfactory answers regarding the medical treatments administered to Xu Dongqing.
Xu Dongqing, a 70-year-old petitioner, had been subjected to criminal persecution orchestrated by Li Yaoguang, the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee in Jiangsu, for her involvement in exposing large-scale land expropriation cases. Despite suffering from heart disease and a recent hospitalization due to a stroke, she was continuously barred from seeking medical care by the authorities.
Following calls from the UN Special Rapporteur, Xu Dongqing and Yang Li were allowed to seek medical treatment at Peking University First Hospital, but were abruptly returned to Jinan in March, where their freedom was further restricted. Xu Dongqing was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at Shanghai Huashan Hospital, with little time left for treatment due to delayed medical assistance.
Yang Li, battling kidney disease, endured similar persecution, leading to her current critical condition with end-stage renal failure. The authorities have consistently denied her essential medical care, jeopardizing her life. Despite receiving dialysis treatment in the hospital, the lack of crucial medications has resulted in emergency blood transfusions.
Reflecting on the dire situation faced by her father and sister, Yang Caiying expressed her distress over the endangerment of their lives, all due to the unjust scheme aimed at their family’s destruction. The ongoing struggles paint a grim picture of the challenges faced by the Xu family in their pursuit of justice and basic human rights.