In Guangxi Fangchenggang City, what seemed like a normal roadside dispute escalated into a serious incident of abuse of power and privacy breach. The Mercedes-Benz female driver involved not only threatened others to yield the road but also disclosed sensitive information such as the other party’s residential address on the spot. When the victim had no recourse for complaint and decided to make the video public, the police came to pressure him to delete it overnight. This event has exposed deep-rooted issues that have sparked strong public attention, with many details causing profound concern.
The victim, known online as “Flathead Brother,” detailed the incident in an interview with mainland media. On the afternoon of July 22, he encountered a Mercedes-Benz sedan on a narrow rural road in Fangchenggang City, Guangxi. Flathead Brother stated that he had already yielded the right of way voluntarily, but the other party insisted on him reversing. During the deadlock, the Mercedes-Benz female driver brandished a document with the words “Administrative Law Enforcement” as a form of threat and pressure.
What was even more shocking was that a man in the same car accurately mentioned Flathead Brother’s residential address and real surname on the spot. Flathead Brother emphasized that he had been working and living in another city for a long time and had no acquaintance with the other party, strongly suspecting that the other party was a public official who illegally accessed his personal information.
The footage from the car’s recorder clearly shows the female driver displaying the document in her hand during the confrontation and threatening to “report to the police.” Throughout the ordeal, the female driver displayed a sense of superiority and attempted to compel the other party to yield by wielding the document.
After the incident, Flathead Brother embarked on a difficult and tortuous process to seek justice. He reported the incident to local town government discipline inspection commission, the police station, the 12345 government service hotline, and the Nanning traffic police detachment discipline inspection commission, among other functional departments, but was met with excuses, stonewalling, or direct refusals to accept his complaints.
The town government discipline inspection commission denied that the female driver was their staff and suggested that he seek help from the police station. The police at the station questioned how he was certain that the other party obtained his information through internal channels, dismissing the situation as only “verbal threats without actual harm” and refusing to file a case. Staff at the 12345 hotline claimed that without specific information about the other party’s unit, they could not conduct an investigation and classified the matter as a “personal quality issue.”
With all traditional channels for seeking justice blocked, Flathead Brother released the car recorder video to an online platform on July 31, and the view count quickly exceeded 4 million.
However, around 10 PM that same day, the Mercedes-Benz female driver, the man in the car with her, and two police officers from the police station showed up at his family’s home address, demanding the deletion of the online video.
In a recorded phone conversation, the police clearly stated that the video had caused significant public opinion impact, and due to the visible license plate number, it was deemed to infringe on the female driver’s privacy rights. They demanded that Flathead Brother immediately delete the video and issue a public apology, even going as far as threatening him with “penalties for violating public security management” and “administrative detention.”
Under immense pressure and concerns for his family’s safety, Flathead Brother was forced to delete the original video but later reposted a version with the license plate obscured.
On August 1, when the video surpassed 10 million views, the police station once again pressured his father through the village secretary to completely delete all related videos.
Some netizens pointed out that the “Light-Evidence Sister” is the current member of the Party Committee, director of the Political Department, and senior fourth-level officer at the Fangchenggang City Public Security Bureau, Lan Cuizhu, but reporters have not been able to verify the authenticity of this information yet.
On August 2, according to the Wenzhou media “Wave News,” the Deputy Mayor and Director of the Public Security Bureau of Fangchenggang City in Guangxi actively contacted the person involved in the “Light-Evidence” incident. The person revealed that the Deputy Mayor informed him that the Mercedes-Benz female driver is a business owner, not a public official, and the credentials she displayed were fabricated, claiming they were only a prop used to “scare people.”
The report quoted a statement from an online user, stating that the Deputy Mayor explained that the female driver is a “relative of a relative” and happened to recognize his vehicle. “I asked my parents about it and showed them a photo, and they do not know this woman. I am highly suspicious of this explanation,” the person said.
Lawyer Fu Jian, Director of the Henan Zejin Law Firm, pointed out in an interview with mainland media that if the Mercedes-Benz female driver is indeed a public official, her behavior of using her position to access others’ personal information constitutes a serious abuse of power. According to relevant provisions of the “Administrative Punishment Law for Public Officials,” severe cases could result in dismissal.
Regarding the police’s demand to delete the video, Lawyer Fu Jian explicitly stated that the video posted by Flathead Brother documented public behavior in a public place, falling within the legal range of evidence collection. If the police only requested the deletion of the video on grounds of “privacy infringement,” there is an apparent suspicion of abuse of power.
A mainland software engineer, Mr. Wang, disclosed to overseas media New Tang Dynasty TV a thought-provoking technical detail: the internal systems of public security can indeed access detailed personal information of a car owner based on the license plate number.
Mr. Wang explained that about 8 to 9 years ago, his company developed an “Anti-Theft Car System” for the local public security authorities, which integrated core information from various departments such as traffic, household registration, and criminal investigation. By simply entering the license plate number, one could retrieve all private information about the car owner, including their name, address, and family status.
“Anyone with access rights to the internal public security system can easily obtain this sensitive information,” Mr. Wang revealed. “This system was originally designed to prevent vehicle theft, but in reality, it could be misused as a tool to control citizens.”