Recently, Mr. Zhang, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Heze, Shandong Province, reflected to the media that his barbecue garden was forced to close within two months after being inspected about 15 times by 5 departments including market supervision and fire control, following his real-name report to the authorities about the “disappearance of a Yuan dynasty blue and white cup at the Heze Museum”.
Mr. Zhang explained on September 12 that he usually pays attention to local livelihood issues in Heze and often speaks out on social media about unfair matters. The clue for this report on cultural relics was sent to him by an informed netizen through social media private messages. By comparing public reports and the collection of the Heze Museum, he discovered that indeed an item was missing.
At the end of June this year, Mr. Zhang reported to the Heze police and also made a real-name report to the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism about the disappearance of the Yuan dynasty blue and white cup from the Heze Museum. This report sparked widespread attention. On August 6, the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the Heze Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism responded that they had intervened to investigate the issues raised by Mr. Zhang.
However, since then, Mr. Zhang’s barbecue garden in Mudan District, Heze, has been subjected to a series of reports.
Since early July, Mr. Zhang’s barbecue shop has been inspected about 15 times within two months by 5 departments including Heze market supervision, comprehensive law enforcement, agriculture and rural areas, natural resources, and fire control. He suspects that someone maliciously made complaints for retaliatory purposes.
He mentioned that his barbecue garden had never been inspected since its opening in May last year. However, after he reported the missing cultural relic, various complaints emerged, including fire code violations, selling dog meat, unauthorized construction of simple sheds, substandard hygiene, and smoke disturbing residents. Besides the natural resources department’s request to dismantle the simple shed, most of the complaints were found to be groundless.
On one outrageous day, three departments visited consecutively. Due to frequent visits by law enforcement officers, customers were hesitant to visit, and his business was severely affected. Exhausted both mentally and physically, he was forced to close his business on September 7.
To further understand the situation, on September 12, an urban reporter contacted the relevant authorities in Heze. The staff stated that they were “unclear” about the motivations of the whistleblower. Upon receiving complaints regarding the illegal construction of the barbecue shop, they were only responsible for recording and forwarding them, with further verification and responses to be made by functional departments.
According to previous reports by CCTV, a construction site in Heze City once excavated a Yuan dynasty sunken ship dating back over 600 years, unearthing over 110 cultural relics valued at nearly 1 billion RMB. Among them, three Yuan dynasty blue and white porcelain pieces were particularly precious, considered a “shocking discovery” and are currently housed in the Heze Museum. The blue and white dragon-pattern plum vase was classified as a national first-level cultural relic, being the treasure of the Heze Museum.
An informed source in the industry revealed that there were multiple violations during the archaeological excavation, such as missing original photo data and lack of a detailed registration list for unearthed cultural relics, suspecting that more than one item may have been lost.
In response, netizens expressed concerns and raised doubts:
“This is definitely a targeted move. Do all barbecue shops face such inspections?”
“It seems that valuable cultural relics may have indeed been stolen, and the shop owner has clearly stirred up trouble.”
“It’s obvious that someone is setting him up. The interconnected interests are intricate, prompting multiple departments to take action.”
“To simultaneously mobilize five departments to investigate the whistleblower, there must be more to the background!”
“With 15 inspections at the barbecue shop over two months, did they really investigate whether the relics from the sunken ship 600 years ago were lost? Did they get to the bottom of it?”
“Young people in Shandong mostly choose to go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen after graduating, and this is one reason why.”
“The value of Yuan blue and white ceramics is extremely high, involving too many vested interests behind it.”
“I opened a 48-square-meter physical therapy center, and within 10 months, market supervision and the Health Commission visited 10 times. In the end, I also chose to file a complaint.”
“Grassroots personnel have previously claimed that it’s easy to ruin businessmen, and the current rent-seeking of power is too frightening.”