On December 30, 2024, Chinese human rights lawyer Bao Longjun released a video today, stating that he and his wife were returning to Beijing by train from Tianjin West Station. As soon as they boarded the train, four police officers from the Tianjin Railway Public Security Bureau came to check their identification cards and search their belongings, even demanding to open their wallets for inspection, leading to a dispute between both parties.
The video, posted by Bao Longjun on X on December 30, 2024, shows the police trying to search his belongings which he refused, leading to a dispute between the two parties. In the caption, he explained, “As we were boarding the train back to Beijing from Tianjin West Station, four police officers from the Tianjin Railway Public Security Bureau came to check our identification cards and search our belongings, even demanding to inspect our wallets. They also threatened us not to record videos, or else… They specifically targeted me and Wang Yu. Who ordered this? For what purpose? Tianjin West Station is where they framed Wang Yu and severely injured their so-called staff in the past! Now, are they trying to set us up for persecution again? The female officer is named Dong Zhe, and the male officer is named Li Chao.”
A commenter wrote, “Almost all Communist Party police officers are lawless and completely ignorant of the law. Without a search warrant issued by a county-level public security agency, they cannot search other people’s belongings.”
Former Voice of America correspondent in Beijing, Ye Bing, commented, “On August 14, 2017, my assistant Alan and I were reporting outside Tianjin Court on the trial of ‘Butcher Wu Gan,’ and we were harassed by random individuals. Later, we were illegally detained in a police station, attracting international attention. I fought to protect my phone and other belongings, but a tall violent policeman physically assaulted me, breaking the law. After a few hours, with the intervention of the Tianjin Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, we were finally released. One day, we will hold these corrupt officers accountable.”
Prior to this incident, on October 23, Wang Yu, Jiang Tianyong, and other lawyers went to Wei County to represent the case of Liu Meixiang. When Liu Meixiang’s husband, Qiu Bin, took photos with his phone, the special police officers confiscated his phone, leading to a conflict. Wang Yu then called the police, but she herself was taken away by the police. On November 1, human rights lawyer Wang Yu was released after being illegally detained for 9 days at the Weixian Detention Center in Handan, Hebei. During her detention, due to her continuous hunger strike protest, she suffered severe dehydration and extreme physical weakness, to the point where she was unable to walk or speak upon release, prompting her husband Bao Longjun and others to urgently take her to receive medical treatment.