In the news report by Dajiyuan on June 14, 2025, it was revealed that Yin Dengzhen, a petitioner from Shiyan City, Hubei Province, has been persistently petitioning for rights protection for 22 years. In January this year, she was once again arrested for demanding accountability from judges involved in a false case, and the trial has not been concluded since it began on April 9, 2025. Her husband, Xiao Shujun, was also implicated and faced charges of “provoking trouble,” while their daughter, Xia Beibei, was accused of being an accomplice for taking care of her disabled parents.
Yin Dengzhen is currently detained in the Shiyan City Detention Center, while Xiao Shujun is held in the Tongjiang City Detention Center. Despite their severe illnesses and inability to care for themselves, both detention centers claim that their health conditions meet the detention standards. Yin Dengzhen has expressed to her lawyer on multiple occasions that she may not survive until her release and fears that her daughter Xia Beibei might also face retaliation.
According to family members, the prosecutor’s office recommended a sentence of 3 to 5 years for Yin Dengzhen and 2.5 to 3.5 years for Xiao Shujun.
Yin Dengzhen began her petitioning journey in 2003 when she exposed corrupt dealings of government officials in Shiyan, Hubei Province, resulting in the sale of state-owned assets worth more than 100 million yuan for only 800,000 yuan, leading to over 600 state-owned enterprise employees being laid off. This prompted her to embark on the path of petitioning for justice, enduring multiple incarcerations, forced psychiatric treatments, labor camp sentences, physical torment, disabilities, and a diagnosis of lymphoma.
After 16 appeals and petitions, on May 30, 2022, Yin Dengzhen finally won a court case and was acquitted of the charges of extortion against the government. However, her pursuit of accountability in that case led to further persecution.
On January 16, 2025, Yin Dengzhen was administratively detained for seven days by Yan Tingbin, deputy director of the Xiaohongmen Police Station in Chaoyang District, Beijing, on charges of “disrupting the order of state institutions.” She endured torture in the police station, including being handcuffed, beaten while restrained in a chair, deprived of food and restroom access, resulting in incontinence.
Upon her release on January 23, the police in Shiyan City, Hubei Province tried to abduct her, but their attempt was unsuccessful. Subsequently, on January 26, six unidentified individuals broke into Yin Dengzhen’s apartment in Beijing, where she was kidnapped, robbed of over 3,000 yuan, a passport, and two mobile phones. It was later revealed by Beijing authorities that one of the kidnappers was a police officer from the Yunyang Sub-bureau of the Shiyan Public Security Bureau in Hubei Province, while the others were individuals associated with organized crime.
On the same evening of January 26, Yin Dengzhen was criminally detained on charges of “provoking trouble” and has been held in the Shiyan City Detention Center for over four months now.
Xia Beibei revealed to Dajiyuan, “My mother was secretly abducted from her home in Beijing by Jin Zhi, deputy team leader of the Yunyang Public Security Brigade of the Shiyan Public Security Bureau, in collaboration with members of the criminal underworld, and the police falsified the case file claiming ‘Yin Dengzhen was found and arrested outside the Yangzheng Hotel in Liupo Town of Yunyang District.’ In fact, the hotel has been an illegal detention site for petitioners established by the local government and police.
Family members made over ten reports to the Beijing police, but no action was taken.”
Xiao Shujun, Yin Dengzhen’s husband, a resident of Tongjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, began his rights protection activities more than twenty years ago after local government officials aided in the seizure of his family’s home and land. He has since suffered from beatings that left him paralyzed, epilepsy, heart disease, and an inability to care for himself due to poor health.
Now, Xiao Shujun has been implicated in Yin Dengzhen’s case. According to Xia Beibei, the Supreme People’s Court has used a false case of “assault on police” from 2023 as evidence to prosecute Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun in a document titled “Explanation of the Petition Situation of Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun in Hubei and Heilongjiang Provinces.”
Xia Beibei noted, “Based on the defense provided by the lawyer, most of the evidence in the ‘provoking trouble’ case against my parents is fabricated by the Supreme People’s Court, notably under the direction of Qian Xiaochen, as proof of the persecution of petitioners. The false ‘assault on police’ incident occurred on June 29, 2023, when Yin Dengzhen was violently attacked by security guards dispatched by the Supreme Court, resulting in broken ribs and severe injuries. Xiao Shujun was also pushed into the middle of the road that night by security guards, narrowly escaping being run over by a bus. Due to his sudden heart and epilepsy conditions, he was rushed to the hospital. Despite multiple eyewitnesses and crucial video evidence collected by family members, the Chaoyang District Prosecutor’s Office refused to prosecute due to ‘insufficient evidence.’
After Yin Dengzhen was permanently disabled in 2023, Xia Beibei left her high-paying job to care for her critically ill and dependent parents in Beijing. Now, Xia Beibei has also been implicated. In the indictment against Yin Dengzhen, authorities accused, ‘Xia Beibei colluded with Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun in five incidents of petitioning at the Supreme Court.’
The fabricated acts of petitioning by Xia Beibei, Yin Dengzhen, and Xiao Shujun took place on May 20, 2024.
On that day, while Xiao Shujun was across the street from the Supreme People’s Court, he was dragged from his wheelchair and beaten by Wang Chao, an officer from the Xiaohongmen Police Station in Chaoyang District. Xia Beibei recorded the incident and called the Beijing 12345 complaint hotline, but she was summoned by the police during the call.
Taken to the Chaoyang Sub-bureau case center, Xia Beibei was interrogated under duress while bound to a torture chair. Instead of pertinent questions related to the case, she was questioned about mental health, medication usage, and the need for psychiatric hospitalization. Falsified urine and drug tests were conducted under false pretenses, claiming to have informed her family about her summons.
Xia Beibei stated, “Qian Xiaochen, head of the Supreme People’s Court, has fabricated evidence to shield the perpetrators involved in the unjust cases in Shiyan, Hubei, and Tongjiang, Heilongjiang. This is a clear indication of the persecution and intentional harm directed at the critically ill couple Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun.”