During the Central Inspection Team’s deployment in Shaanxi Province, the Shaanxi Provincial Petition Office rejected a joint letter from 550 petitioners and obstructed their collective petitions. There were even instances of staff impersonating members of the inspection team, causing strong dissatisfaction among the petitioners. Rights advocates have sent joint letters to the leaders of the Central Inspection Team and the Shaanxi Provincial Inspection Team, requesting a thorough investigation into judicial corruption in Shaanxi Province.
According to information obtained from staff at the Shaanxi Provincial Petition Office, on July 21, the inspection team started its on-site operations. Every day, the area outside the petition office was crowded with petitioners, but they never encountered any members of the inspection team.
On the morning of July 25, a large number of petitioners from various parts of Shaanxi gathered outside the petition office and signed a joint letter accusing the judicial corruption in Shaanxi Province, with 200 people participating. Dozens of petitioners from Xi’an lined up to register and submit two joint letters for collective petitioning but were refused.
Ms. Wang told a reporter that on the morning of the 25th, she lined up with other petitioners, preparing to collectively petition. A man claiming to be from the Beijing inspection team told them that when he learned of their allegations of corruption in the judicial system in Shaanxi, he asked them to gather everyone without waiting in line, saying he could arrange for them to be received directly. Ms. Wang believed him to be true. However, an elderly petitioner from Xianyang immediately recognized the man as a staff member of the petition office. The old lady went up, tapped the man on the shoulder, and exclaimed, “Zhou Yonggang,” causing the man to turn around abruptly. Ms. Wang questioned him about why he was pretending to be from Beijing, and the man, feeling guilty, walked away.
Contrary to what the man had promised, there was no arrangement for reception. When the staff saw the submitted joint letter signed by 200 people on the spot and another joint letter signed by 550 people from across the province, they claimed this did not constitute a collective petition. Their attitude became more aggressive, and they called the police, pushing and shoving the petitioners.
“When they saw that there were 550 signatures, they were shocked and said they couldn’t accept the materials. I said, if the judicial system in Shaanxi is so corrupt, then no one dares to manage it?” Ms. Wang said.
The joint letter signed by 550 people accuses Wang Xiaodong, head of the Tenth Procuratorate Department of the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Procuratorate, of dereliction of duty, withholding and destroying petition materials, and retaliating against whistleblowers, among other illegal and criminal activities. However, since October 2023, no matter whether materials were sent to Su Deliang, the chief of the Supreme Procuratorate’s inspection team, or to Ying Yong, the Chief Procurator of the Supreme Procuratorate, or to Liu Zhuo, the leader of the inspection team, they all went unnoticed.
Ms. Du stated that because normal channels of redress yielded no results, they had to resort to collective petitioning.
Ms. Du told the reporter, “Today we are collectively addressing common issues, accusing the Shaanxi Provincial Procuratorate of violations of laws and regulations, not individual cases. Therefore, this is a collective petition. But the security guards wouldn’t let us in. He said, he could handle everyone’s issues except yours.”
With no way to petition through official channels, rights advocates once again sent a joint letter to Li Jianming, leader of the Central Inspection Team, and Wang Xingning, leader of the Shaanxi Provincial Inspection Team on the afternoon of the 25th.
In the joint letter, the representatives emphasized that the Party group of the Shaanxi Provincial People’s Procuratorate is also within the scope of this inspection, and Party members and cadres in key positions are the focus of supervision and inspection. The actions of the Shaanxi Provincial Petition Office in rejecting collective petition materials and impersonating members of the inspection team have seriously violated the basic principles of inspection work. The representatives urged Li Jianming and Wang Xingning to supervise the Shaanxi Provincial Petition Office to make immediate changes and thoroughly investigate judicial corruption.