In the city of Gong County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province, a woman named Yu Fenglian, a petitioner, has been struggling for her rights for sixteen years along with her siblings. They have been fighting against the forced occupation of their inherited forest land by a collusion between officials and businessmen. Despite their efforts, they have not seen any progress. Last year, Yu Fenglian was diagnosed with cancer and has been tightly controlled in Gong County. Officials have been heard saying, “Yu Fenglian is seriously ill, she will soon die!”
Recently, Yu Fenglian recorded a video where she expressed her frustration about not being able to take any form of transportation, whether it be buses or tricycles, due to constant interference from unidentified individuals. She complained about reporting these incidents multiple times to the police but to no avail.
She stated, “I am a person who upholds their rights according to the law, and at the same time, I am someone with a serious illness. Leaders in Gong County have mentioned that if Yu Fenglian falls seriously ill, she will die soon. This implies that once the petitioner is gone, the petitioning issue will be resolved as well.”
Due to these circumstances, when Yu Fenglian raised these concerns with the provincial committee and the provincial public security department, the leaders at the public security department advised her to rent a house since traveling back and forth was costly. As a result, she rented a house in Chengdu. However, within just four months from February 2024 to June 2024, she had to move four times, being asked to leave every time by the authorities shortly after renting the property.
Recently, she has been subjected to 24-hour surveillance, with dozens of shifts monitoring her constantly, making her life extremely exhausting. Yu Fenglian expressed her discomfort staying in Gong County for even one more day. She added, “I cannot go to the house I rented in Chengdu, I am restricted to Gong County. The situation is that because I demand justice, I have been illegally harmed. Reporting physical assaults to the police has been ineffective, being restricted in my movements and not being allowed to take transportation. Currently, I cannot take any form of transportation and cannot leave Gong County.”
Yu Fenglian told a reporter from Dajiyuan, “As a person suffering from cancer, the local authorities’ inaction and wrongful actions are creating real and concrete problems. Saying that I will die if the situation is prolonged! They continue to impede me from seeking redress from higher authorities.”
Yu Fangtang, Yu Fenglian’s brother, also spoke to a reporter from Dajiyuan, stating, “Our family upholds our rights according to the law: being controlled by the local government’s organized dark forces. They do not resolve the issues and prevent us from reporting the problem to higher authorities.”
Yu Fangtang has been working in Beijing for many years. Every time he returns to his hometown on sensitive days, the local government forcefully brings him back, leading to severe impacts on his work and income. After being violently brought back in 2022, the authorities promised to compensate him for a loss of fifteen thousand yuan in wages and even signed an agreement, yet they have not fulfilled their promise until now.
After Yu Fenglian’s parents passed away, they left behind a piece of forest land that rightfully belongs to Yu Fenglian and her siblings. In 2009, due to a mistake by the Gong County government, the land was wrongly transferred to the children of a neighboring family named Yu Dahui. The efforts to fight for their rights by Yu Fenglian and others have been futile.
For many years, the Yu family has been trying to uphold their rights through various means, but the courts have consistently refused to accept their cases. The higher court even declared that the petition issue has ended and verbally instructed that it should be resolved by the local Party committee and government.
In April 2022, the Municipal Political and Legal Committee suggested that the Gong County Political and Legal Committee Secretary, the County Mayor, and the Public Security Bureau Director should organize a special team to investigate the disputes over the forest land rights. However, no written investigation results were produced.
Finally, the Municipal Political and Legal Committee recommended that the Gong County Party Secretary, Zhou Wenwu, organize a hearing to handle the forest land certificate issue. However, after three years, the authorities have still not come to a legal decision following the hearing, and the Yu family’s forest land certificate remains unresolved.