Recently, Taiwan’s Foxconn announced a significant investment deployment in Henan, leading to depositors of rural town banks in Henan warning Foxconn to invest cautiously in various ways, to be aware of the risk of losing one’s life savings, but they were threatened and intimidated by the police.
On August 3, Mr. Wang, a depositor of a rural town bank in Henan who has suffered losses, told Epoch Times that after Foxconn signed a major investment strategic agreement with the Henan provincial government, “we depositors have been calling Foxconn, sending emails, and jointly issuing warnings of major risks, with lawyers also issuing investment risk letters.”
Mr. Wang said, “We remind Foxconn to invest cautiously in Henan, as the rural town bank in Henan has illegally frozen the savings deposits of our UnionPay card holders for over 800 days without repayment.”
In April 2022, several rural town banks in Henan and Anhui had bank runs, freezing deposits totaling 40 billion RMB from over 400,000 depositors. In July of the same year, over 3,000 depositors went to the People’s Bank of China in Zhengzhou to claim their deposits, leading to a bloody conflict.
Following this, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission intervened in the investigation. The rural town bank in Henan began to make partial payments to depositors with amounts of 50,000, 100,000, 150,000 … up to 500,000 yuan. However, thousands of large depositors have yet to receive a single penny of their substantial deposits.
For over two years, these large depositors have been severely suppressed for demanding their substantial deposits back, with their phones and cars tracked, and being monitored while taking public transportation, the subway, or planes, and even being arrested, beaten, illegally detained, and coerced into confessing during interrogation.
In this context, Taiwan’s multinational enterprise, Hon Hai Technology Group, reported on its website on July 24 that its subsidiary Foxconn had signed a “Strategic Project Cooperation Agreement” with the Henan provincial government to invest in building a new business headquarters in Zhengzhou to house the functions of the new headquarters. The project is located in Zhengdong New District, with an investment of about 1 billion yuan.
In an online exposed recording, a depositor of a rural town bank in Henan called Foxconn and said, “We suggest Hon Hai Group and the Henan provincial government to be cautious in their cooperation. Our legal deposits of 400,000 depositors have been withheld and not returned, totaling close to over 40 billion in deposits.”
“Every time we go to Henan, we are subjected to surveillance that prevents us from withdrawing funds or filing lawsuits in court… Foxconn Group must be cautious in investing in Henan. Because we have suffered in Henan, we hope your group will not suffer losses in the same way.”
Mr. Wang stated, “The Henan government has intervened through administrative means in the economic disputes between depositors and banks, resulting in our legal deposits being inaccessible. The loss of integrity by the Henan government indicates the high investment risks in Henan. Thousands of depositors have suffered immense losses, so we hope Foxconn chooses a place with integrity for investment.”
Mr. Wang revealed that they have repeatedly called out to the Henan government, stating that if they issue a legal procedure to freeze the deposits to depositors, all depositors are willing to donate their deposits to Henan.
However, the Henan government refuses to provide any documentation to depositors and simply uses police forces to intimidate and threaten the affected depositors.
Mr. Wang said that their caution to Foxconn to invest prudently in Henan has also been met with police threats, warning them not to call Foxconn again. Police threats and intimidation towards affected depositors have become commonplace across various regions.
On August 2, Mr. Han, an affected depositor of a rural town bank in Henan, told Epoch Times that they received a recorded call from police in another province on August 1.
In this recording, Henan police regularly call police in other provinces every week to request their cooperation in controlling depositors affected by the Henan situation nationwide. They prevent thousands of depositors from all provinces in the country from undertaking rights defense in Beijing and petitioning in Henan.
In the recording, a police officer named Geng from the Chengguan Police Station of Xiangfu District, Kaifeng City, Henan, called police officers in other provinces where five depositors are located and asked them to control these five depositors, preventing them from going to Henan and Beijing to seek justice.
Mr. Han said that for over 800 days, the Henan government has failed to properly address the return of depositors’ funds but instead has consistently used public power to obstruct, intimidate, and threaten affected depositors, attempting to force them to give up their legal deposits.
Mr. Han believes that the Henan government is using tactics reminiscent of the Mao Zedong era to seize the deposits of their large depositors, “We, thousands of affected depositors, swear to hire the toughest lawyers nationwide to thoroughly expose the Henan government’s seizure of deposits and reclaim their funds.”