After being released from prison in March this year, Chinese dissident Chen Yunfei from Chengdu is facing a series of suppressions once again. According to several of his friends, not only has he been forcibly summoned and interrogated by the police on multiple occasions, but his 91-year-old mother was violently ejected from their rented home during his incarceration, sustaining a head injury. Tens of thousands of dollars in cash and living essentials were forcibly taken away and their whereabouts remain unknown. Chen Yunfei’s attempts to report the incident yielded no results, and his request for administrative review was met with excuses. He is now preparing to file a lawsuit.
In a recent conversation with a friend of Chen Yunfei, Mr. Zhang told Epoch Times that on March 25, 2025, shortly after his release, Chen Yunfei went to their former residence in Pidu District in an attempt to retrieve his mother’s and his own belongings, including clothing, kitchen supplies, wheelchair, electrical appliances, his mother’s accumulated $30,000 retirement pension, $5,800 cash, as well as about 40,000 RMB. However, the house had already been vacated, and their possessions remain missing to this day.
Mr. Zhang further disclosed that the money had been exchanged at the Bank of China by Chen Yunfei and his relatives between 2019 and 2021, including his mother’s retirement fund intended for her granddaughter’s education abroad. Despite reporting the incident, the police did not provide a record of the report or launch an investigation. “The authorities won’t give you a receipt, making it impossible for you to pursue legal action against them,” Mr. Zhang emphasized.
Currently, Chen Yunfei remains under strict surveillance by national security in Chengdu, depriving him of his freedom. Another friend, Mr. Wang, mentioned that Chen Yunfei had encountered a similar situation back in May 2013. “At that time, while temporarily residing in Gucheng Town in Pidu District, he was physically assaulted by local ‘stability maintenance’ personnel, resulting in injuries that required hospitalization for six months. His residence was subsequently ransacked, and items such as clothing, daily necessities, pesticide sprayers, and electric scooters were all taken away and not returned or compensated for. The injuries he sustained at that time have yet to fully heal.”
In an interview, another friend of Chen Yunfei, Mr. Feng, who has known him for twenty years and been closely monitoring his situation, recalled an incident in March 2021. During Chen’s detention, his mother was alone at home and was forcefully evicted by community workers in a rough manner, unable to bring along her radio, phone, or living expenses. She was abandoned outside the door, where she sustained a head injury and had to be hospitalized for over a month. The American dollars and cash that his mother had saved for many years also disappeared during this forced relocation.
The three friends of Chen Yunfei mentioned above indicated that Chen had made several unsuccessful attempts to file complaints with the police and government for his rights protection after his release from prison. “In April this year, he submitted an administrative review to Pidu District government, but on June 13, he received a refusal of responsibility,” Mr. Zhang revealed, “The government didn’t conduct any investigation; they simply stated that it wasn’t within their jurisdiction, clearly shifting the blame.”
Aside from property issues, Chen Yunfei has recently been frequently summoned by the police. Mr. Feng mentioned that on June 3, at 3 p.m., Chen Yunfei was taken by the national security and Xipu police officers to be interrogated while sitting on a ‘tiger bench’ for five hours. “The police accused him of posting or reposting multiple tweets on social media recently ‘allegedly inciting troubles’, including reposting comments from Pastor Wang Yi, democracy activist Cai Chu, and scholar Ju Zheng.”
Chen Yunfei’s mobile phone and Wi-Fi device were confiscated without any formal detainment procedures being presented, and it wasn’t until the night of June 5, after repeated calls for help, that they were returned.
Mr. Wang noted that there were no formal summoning procedures provided by the police, and it was only during the interrogation that Chen Yunfei repeatedly requested and was subsequently given a belated summoning certificate. Additionally, on April 30, May 23, and May 30, Chen Yunfei was taken away for questioning multiple times for posting content related to citizens’ observation or making warnings to high-level Chinese Communist Party officials, without any official notification.
These frequent harassments have severely impacted the mental and physical well-being of Chen Yunfei and his mother. Mr. Zhang disclosed that on the evening of June 3, Chen’s mother was so terrified when alone at home that she could only manage to eat a few bites of noodles before bursting into tears. Subsequently, the authorities forcibly took them to the “Lingyun Caotang” villa area 20 kilometers away for a 24-hour soft detention, without providing washing amenities until the following afternoon, when they reluctantly offered a disposable toothbrush and wet wipes.
Mr. Feng expressed that Chen’s mother has been in a state of fear and depression for a long time, unable to eat for days simply at the mention of the forced eviction incident from 2021. As an elderly person, she has repeatedly suffered violent treatment, causing both physical and mental damage.
Mr. Wang also mentioned that since his imprisonment in 2015, the nursery assets operated by Chen Yunfei have been emptied by unknown individuals. Despite not receiving any court notices, he has been listed as a “dishonest person subject to enforcement,” included in the list of “deadbeats,” rendering him completely incapable of self-sustenance.
The three friends emphasized that Chen Yunfei and his mother are currently relying on donations and loans from friends for survival, living in extremely difficult circumstances. Mr. Zhang stated, “Over the years, he has been tormented by the authorities, but he hasn’t given up. He is preparing to initiate legal action.”
The plight of Chen Yunfei is not an isolated case, and his three friends urge the public to pay attention to the post-release situation of Chinese dissidents and the accompanying suppression faced by their families. They stress, “None of these actions are lawful. We also want to ask, where exactly is the suspected criminal activity?”
Self-proclaimed as a “animal tamer,” Chen Yunfei, a graduate of Beijing Agricultural University, was a participant in the 1989 democracy movement. On the 18th anniversary of June 4, 2007, for publishing an advertisement in the “Chengdu Evening News” titled “Saluting the Strong Mothers of the 64 Victims,” he was put under half a year of residential surveillance on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” He has subsequently been sentenced to imprisonment multiple times since then.