On this day ten years ago, ten petitioners in Shanghai were arrested by the Shanghai procuratorate for “provocation and trouble-making” for displaying banners during the Asia Security Summit and later wrongly sentenced to eight months in prison. The judge stated: “This is government behavior, go to the government if you have any issues.”
Ten years later, one of the petitioners, Shi Ping, passed away with grievances during the rights defense, while Yu Chunxiang left their hometown out of disappointment. Yan Lanying, Jin Meizhen, Xie Jinhua, Wu Yuefen reunited on the tenth anniversary of their persecution, accusing the Shanghai judiciary for colluding to pervert the law, impacting the lives and work of their future generations.
In May 15, 2014, ten petitioners in Shanghai, including Yan Yanwen, Shi Ping, Zheng Peipei, Yu Chunxiang, Yin Huimin, Wu Yufen, Xie Jinhua, Jin Meizhen, Xu Peiling, Yan Lanying, held banners on the streets before the Asia Security Summit (the fourth summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization) in Shanghai. The banners read messages like “The Asia Security Summit has become a crazy meeting that suppresses faith, suppresses petitioning, suppresses belief, suppresses information, requesting Xi Jinping to pay attention to human rights.” A few days later, they were all detained by the authorities on charges of “provocation and trouble-making.”
In late November of the same year, the first trial of the case began with each of the ten defendants tried in multiple courts simultaneously due to scheduling conflicts, where witnesses could only attend one trial. Seven months later, the verdict was simultaneously announced in five courts, with all found guilty. Except for one person who received a 5-month probation, the rest were sentenced to 8 months in prison.
In the court ruling, the prosecuting authority stated that “the defendants Xu Peiling and Yan Lanying, along with others, created disturbances in public places, disrupting social order and causing serious chaos in public places.”
Yan Lanying and others believe that the charge of “provocation and trouble-making” should be based on the results of the actions. They questioned the prosecutor: “Where did we create disturbances?” “What disturbances did we cause?” “Which public place had its order disrupted?” and “What serious chaos was caused in a public place?” They also argued that according to Article 7 of the Criminal Procedure Law, the public security, procuratorate, and judiciary should supervise each other, but they colluded to pervert the law, using their power to sentence them, affecting the lives and work of their descendants. Due to the injustice of the authorities, multiple generations of their families had to pay the price.
Yan Lanying told a reporter from Dajiyuan, “We were each displaying banners in different areas of Shanghai during the Asia Security Summit and were wrongly imprisoned by the government. I can’t completely remember the exact content of the banners.”
In September 2009, five members of Yan Lanying’s family (Yan Fengying, Yan Guiying, Yan Lanying, Yan Xiulan, and husband Chen Zhifang) lodged a complaint to the Xuhui District Education Bureau because Yan Xiulan, the only daughter of Yan Xiulan and Chen Zhifang, was attending school at the Future Road College in Shanghai. Less than three months before the upcoming national college entrance exam, Yan Xiulan and her husband paid a high tuition fee, leading to the family being accused of “organized crimes, colluding to commit crimes, and causing disturbances” and sentenced to criminal imprisonment. Yan Lanying started her rights defense due to this incident.
Jin Meizhen from Pudong New District in Shanghai was infringed upon due to illegal demolition and relocation at the Pudong International Airport and has been seeking justice for 19 years. In order to uphold her legitimate rights for nearly two decades, she has petitioned at local and central authorities repeatedly, yet she has been subjected to detention, abduction, house arrest, and various forms of oppression repeatedly.
Xie Jinhua originally owned a rural homestead of 387 square meters at Zhangjia Village, Pinghai, Pudong New District in Shanghai. In 2005, she was coerced into signing an unequal agreement through deception and threats, in which she was forced to exchange her dwelling for a leaking 191-square-meter resettlement house. Subsequently, her resettlement house was forcibly demolished, and her vital 15 mu of farmland was requisitioned without receiving any compensation to this day.
In order to protect her legitimate rights, Xie Jinhua continuously reported her grievances to various levels of government petition departments, and was detained several times for accusing the Shanghai government of corruption and dereliction of duty at central departments in Beijing.