On August 11, the WeChat blogger “Sunshine Under the Pen” lost contact with the outside world. This happened after reporting online about the case of Chen Dezhen, a petitioner from Anhui Province, regarding the “Two Kiln Factory owes brick payment” issue. Authorities from both Hunan and Anhui provinces demanded that he delete the posts, but he refused and subsequently went missing. All the articles related to Chen Dezhen on his WeChat account have been deleted.
“Sunshine Under the Pen,” real name Yin Jiangen, is from Zhuzhou, Hunan. He has long been concerned about grassroots people and advocating for their rights. He had previously spoken up for Chen Dezhen multiple times and received requests from relevant authorities in Anhui to delete the posts. He insisted on solving Chen Dezhen’s issues before complying. Recently, he has disappeared.
Chen Dezhen told a reporter from Epoch Times, “I can’t reach ‘Sunshine Under the Pen’ anymore because of my advocacy work. All his posts have been deleted. His family hasn’t contacted us, and we don’t know what’s going on. After publishing the last article around three o’clock on the 11th, he hasn’t spoken out since.”
Rights activist Ding Hongfen told Epoch Times, “Due to reporting on Chen Dezhen’s case, ‘Sunshine Under the Pen’ has been visited by leaders and police from both Hunan and Anhui, asking him to delete the posts. As he refused, he suddenly lost contact with us. All articles related to Chern Dezhen have been removed.”
“Because of false accusations made by the Party Secretary of Liyang Town, Anhui, Chen Dezhen was sentenced to a year in prison. Recently, upon posting on Weibo, he was detained for another 18 days. Out of anger, ‘Sunshine Under the Pen’ wrote several articles criticizing this person, such as ‘When will Liu Ying be investigated?’ and ‘Political scum.’ All other articles are still there, only those related to Chen Dezhen have been deleted. We suspect it was Liu Ying from Anhui who targeted him.”
Ding Hongfen said, “The younger brother of ‘Sunshine Under the Pen’ was approached by the police to persuade him to delete the posts. He refused. They then contacted his cousin to convince him, but he still refused.”
Due to the lack of contact information for his family, the exact situation remains unclear.
In 1995, Chen Dezhen’s ex-husband ordered 120,000 red bricks for construction from a brick factory in Anhui. While 30,000 bricks were delivered, the remaining 90,000 were left at the factory. The local government of Liyang Town unlawfully transferred the factory’s debt to a rubber company. Chen Dezhen has been seeking justice for this matter, but the local government has been evasive for 21 years.
In 2021, Chen Dezhen finally reached a compensation agreement with the Liyang Town government in Anhui regarding the brick payment issue. However, the agreement was changed by the Party Secretary of Liyang Town, Liu Ying, to a so-called “pre-relocation advance payment” agreement. It was agreed to pay 100,000 yuan first, with the remaining 100,000 yuan to be paid by December 16, 2022. Yet, the government failed to fulfill their promises.
As a result, Chen Dezhen went to Beijing to petition. The local government asked her to return to resolve the problem, promising to compensate her transportation expenses totaling 6160 yuan, agreed upon by the village secretary and the government. However, Liu Ying reported to the police that Chen Dezhen was extorting money and was sentenced to one year in prison. Shortly after her release, Chen Dezhen cried injustice on Weibo, claiming that Liu Ying made false accusations, leading to her being detained for 18 days.