Shanghai rights activist Yang Xiuting and her family have long been harassed by the authorities, followed and photographed when entering and leaving the building. She filed a complaint on the 12345 citizen service hotline in Shanghai about this issue, and received a response stating: during important moments, surveillance and photography are within the scope of work. This response sparked widespread discussions among the public.
On one hand, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sets up petitioning regulations, while on the other hand, it allocates stability maintenance funds to suppress petitioners, preventing them from petitioning to the National Bureau of Letters and Calls. Shanghai rights activist Song Jiahong criticized the CCP for being the biggest two-faced party.
According to the “Petitioning Regulations,” citizens, legal persons, and other organizations can use forms such as letters, phone calls, and visits to various levels of government and departments above the county level to report situations, provide suggestions, or file complaints, allowing relevant administrative agencies to handle issues based on the law.
In 2005, the CCP introduced a new version of the “Petitioning Regulations,” emphasizing the principle of “territorial management and hierarchical responsibility,” meaning “who is in charge, who is responsible, combining legal, timely, on-site problem-solving with guidance and education.” The intention of these regulations is to reduce the number of people petitioning in Beijing, making petitioners’ petitioning and rights protection actions even more challenging.
In Shanghai, there are quite a large number of petitioners like Yang Xiuting who have been long subjected to restrictions on personal freedom, house arrests, or confinement in black jails.
Shanghai rights activist Song Jiahong stated, “The emphasis of this territorial management is not on addressing your appeals, but on maintaining stability. They do not allow the so-called key persons to go to Beijing during sensitive times. This is the two-faced nature of the CCP towards petitioning.”
“In the response from the 12345 government hotline, it can be seen that during important moments, such as National Day, Chinese New Year, including the Shanghai Import Expo, petitioners can be detained in black jails. This route was originally unclear, and no one dared to take responsibility. But the response from the 12345 government hotline can be seen as having the ‘red-head document’ basis for detaining petitioners in black jails, otherwise these black jails could not exist rampantly. Therefore, the CCP is the biggest two-faced party (allowing people to petition while suppressing petitioners)!”
Song Jiahong has collected a list of 145 privately established black jails by the district governments in Shanghai in recent months, showing that black jails are quite common in Shanghai. These black jails are used during so-called “important times” to detain petitioners to prevent them from going to Beijing.
Song Jiahong provided a leaked contract between the government of Sanlin Town in Pudong New Area of Shanghai and Shanghai Zhongbao Security Service Co., Ltd., namely a security service contract for important and sensitive points. He said, “For a small town like Sanlin, to suppress petitioners, they can spend 4.8 million yuan on a contract in a year, ostensibly fulfilling the government’s duties, but in reality, allowing security companies to do wrong things. This is illegal. Don’t they understand? With red-head documents in hand and massive financial support, their top priority is just to keep their positions secure! What is breaking the law to them? It is evident that the functions of the state no longer exist, all the talk about protecting, assisting, and serving the people is just empty and meaningless! What a tragedy for the Chinese people!”
Shanghai Pudong New Area petitioner Yang Xiuting has long been constrained by stability maintenance, and her family has been implicated, being photographed and followed when entering and leaving the building.
On November 21, 2024, Yang Xiuting raised a question online on the Shanghai 12345 website, asking why stability maintenance personnel in Kangqiao Town, Pudong New Area of Shanghai, photographed Yang Xiuting and her family entering and leaving Room 202, No. 33, Lane 388, Hangrui Road, Pudong New Area of Shanghai. The response received was, “Photographing and recording the corridor and family members is within the scope of work.” Yang Xiuting then requested to show the authority basis of being within the “scope of work.”
On January 5, 2025, Yang Xiuting once again received a similar reply from the Pudong New Area government, stating that during important national holidays such as National Day, Chinese New Year, and the Import Expo, stability control personnel and vehicles would be dispatched to the location of the controlled individuals to conduct stability control. It was mentioned that photographing and recording the relevant corridors and family members of the controlled individuals entering and leaving falls within the scope of work. However, no legal basis was provided indicating that detaining petitioners or restricting personal freedom is within the “normal” scope of work.
Yang Xiuting said, “The Shanghai 12345 is a protection umbrella for dark forces. My house has been illegally demolished for over ten years, not a square meter compensated, not a cent compensated, but it has become a ‘tool’ for officials to earn stability maintenance fees!”