Introduction
Gao Qinrong, who worked as a journalist for Xinhua News Agency’s Shanxi Branch “Journalist Observation” magazine, was arrested in December 1998 and sentenced to 12 years in prison in April 1999 for taking bribes, introducing prostitution and fraud after exposing the nationwide sensation of “fake seepage irrigation” in Yuncheng, Shanxi. After 18 years of appeals, the case has finally re-entered the judicial process ……
In the past 10 years or so, Gao Qinrong has never been more confident that another possibility could emerge for his case.
Gao Qinrong, who worked as a journalist for the Xinhua News Agency’s Shanxi branch “Journalist Watch” magazine, was arrested in December 1998 and sentenced to 12 years in prison in April 1999 on charges of bribery, introducing prostitution and fraud, after exposing the “fake seepage irrigation” in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, which had become a national sensation. Gao Qinrong lost his freedom for 8 years and 4 days and was not released until December 7, 2006.
Gao Qinrong claimed he was “retaliated against” and never gave up his complaint even while serving his sentence. His complaints have been unanswered for 18 years now.
Until October 2015, Gao Qinrong and his lawyer went to the court to copy out a full set of case files, the lawyer read the files and found that “the evidence on which the case was based was not solid and sufficient”, especially some of the interview transcripts “may have been forged”.
In February 2016, the lawyer submitted an opinion on the case of Gao Qinrong to the Yuncheng Intermediate Court, which said that the case should be retried. At present, the retrial opinion has been accepted by the Central Court, Gao Qinrong said, “the trial committee will study the decision whether to start the retrial.”
Although there is still a lot of uncertainty whether the case can be filed for retrial, but this is still the case after 18 years of complaints, again into the court’s judicial proceedings, which is enough to make Gao Qinrong feel cheerful.
“In the past, I just cried out day after day that I was being retaliated against. (This time is) the first time to study from the case file itself, and by reading the file, the problem was found.”
1
Before deciding to expose the “fake seepage irrigation” in Yuncheng, Shanxi, Gao Qinrong had been a journalist for 14 years.
Gao Qinrong is a native of Wanrong County, Yuncheng, whose mother is a grassroots veteran cadre who has done women’s work all her life and was the director of the Wanrong County Women’s Federation and her father was the director of the Wanrong County Civil Affairs Bureau. 1984, Gao Qinrong graduated from the Shanxi College of Literature and joined the Shanxi Youth Daily, and in 1993, he became the director of the political and legal department of the Journalist Watch magazine sponsored by the Shanxi branch of the Xinhua News Agency.
While working at Shanxi Youth Daily, Gao Qinrong began to write reports on the supervision of local officials, the most typical one being the rape of a woman by Tong Xiaomou, son of Tong, former deputy secretary of the Taiyuan Municipal Party Committee. The clue was obtained from a director of the Taiyuan Public Security Bureau, they arrested Tong’s son Tong Xiaomou – then a criminal police officer in the Beicheng Branch, suspected of raping a number of women, but “the old man is in charge of political and legal affairs, arrested three times, Tong called, can only be released. “
Gao Qinrong proceeded to interview, the report on the matter was later published in that year’s People’s Daily under the title “After the arrest warrant”, one of the signatures on the Gao Qinrong.
In Shanxi political circles, Tong’s seniority is very deep, Gao Qinrong’s report was taken seriously by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Tong was expelled from the party, Tong Xiaomou was also sentenced to 14 years in prison.
In 1997, he discovered that Yuncheng was engaged in “fake seepage irrigation”. (Editor’s note: Seepage irrigation, also known as underground irrigation, refers to the use of engineering facilities to send water below the ground and seep out through the cracks or holes to moisten the soil at the root level.
False percolation irrigation ponds still remain in the countryside of Yuncheng, Shanxi. Fake seepage irrigation ponds still exist in the countryside of Yuncheng, Shanxi.
Gao Qinrong told Interface News that he was on a train to Yuncheng when he heard passengers from Yuncheng talking about the big local seepage irrigation project. “They made up jingles: American satellites were detecting and found Yuncheng preparing for war; Japan had been gone for fifty years and Yuncheng gun towers appeared again.” — ‘gun tower’ is said to be the seepage irrigation pools, those pools are repaired like a gun tower, are standing on the ground.” Gao Qinrong recalled that the passengers said that the infiltration irrigation ponds repaired were faked, something that was laborious and costly.
Query public information can be seen, infiltration irrigation technology is a water-saving technology in agricultural irrigation, it first started in foreign countries, the usual practice is to build a cistern, from the pool to lead the pipe to the root of the crop, the pipe has a fine hole, water from the hole to the root of the crop, so as to save water and labor effect. However, the fine holes are very easy to be blocked, which is a worldwide problem, so regardless of domestic and foreign, this technology has not been widely promoted.
Before 1995, a fruit farmer in Wanrong County, Yuncheng, used this irrigation method in his own orchard without a teacher, with good results. The situation was reported to the then Yuncheng District Party Committee and Executive Office, and in July 1995, the Yuncheng District Party Committee and Executive Office proposed to invest 280 million yuan in 1995 to complete 1 million mu of seepage irrigation area by this method. A “tornado” of building a large percolation irrigation pond in the Yuncheng area quickly started.
A farmer from Richeng County recalled in an interview with Interface News on June 26, 2016: “That year, each of our families asked to build a ‘gun building’, and we pulled the bricks ourselves to build it. A ‘turret’ more than two meters high, all repaired in the ground, and to be repaired on the side of the road.”
Why did the Yuncheng area make a “great leap forward” to build a large number of percolation irrigation projects and make sure to build the percolation ponds by the road? It turns out that Shanxi Province has decided that the province’s agricultural water-saving site will be held in Yuncheng, held in Taiyuan, the national farmland capital construction site representatives, was also arranged to visit Yuncheng water-saving soakaway irrigation project – this is regarded as a “political good” by some of the main officials in the Yuncheng area This was seen as a “political advantage” by some officials in Yuncheng.
With pressure from all levels of government, percolation irrigation ponds were quickly built throughout Yuncheng. Gao Qinrong recalled that these infiltration ponds “fake can not be fake”: repair in the road, in the road in a car passing, looks like standing on the ground is a complete round pool, in fact, some are only half repaired, back to the road side at all; some pools are repaired, nothing to use, inside planted with sunflowers. “So engaged in, is someone wants to be promoted, take this as a political achievement.” Gao Qinrong said.
In May 1998, Gao Qinrong signed an article titled “Shanxi Yuncheng engaged in fake seepage irrigation to waste huge amounts of money” published in the People’s Daily readers’ letters inside the edition.
In addition to reflecting what he learned to the People’s Daily, Gao Qinrong also reported to various departments of the central government, and one of the materials was delivered to a deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection with the help of Gao Manqiang, then deputy director of the liaison office in Beijing of the Yuncheng District Executive Office, who gave instructions to the Shanxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to investigate and deal with it first!
2
On April 5, 1998, Gao Qinrong, who was mourning in Yuncheng because his mother had died, suddenly received a phone call from Yan, a staff member of the Shanxi Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, asking him where he was and to talk to him.
Gao Qinrong recalled that the deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection made the instruction in March 1998, and he was talked to by the provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, less than a month before that.
Soon, Yan and Kong of the Shanxi Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission took a train to Yuncheng, where they stayed in a hotel under the Yuncheng Discipline Inspection Commission. Before that, Gao Qinrong had been informed of the approval of the leaders of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and was happy to know that the provincial discipline inspection commission came, so he was excited to find the past. Gao Qinrong recalls that he was sitting on the bed of the room Yanmou was staying in, waiting for them to pack their luggage.
After packing his luggage, Yan said, “Gao Qinrong, let’s talk.”
“Okay.” Gao Qinrong said.
“Do you have any illegal and disorderly problems in Yuncheng?” Yan asked.
“Hearing him ask that, I was confused.” Gao Qinrong recalled, “I thought they were coming to investigate fake seepage irrigation, but I didn’t think they were coming to investigate me. I said no. He said you have to be honest, they are representing the organization.”
Gao Qinrong still said no. Yan told him to think about it.
Gao Qinrong stayed in their room for 30 to 40 minutes and then went back. There was no movement for the next five or six days. After that, he was approached again. Gao Qinrong recalled that this time, he was asked where his BB and cell phone came from, and Gao Qinrong said he bought it himself and had an invoice.
On the day of his release, Gao Manqiang was seriously injured and disabled. (Photo: Liu Xiangnan) On the day of his release, Gao Manqiang was seriously injured and disabled. (Photo: Liu Xianan)
In July of the same year, in Taiyuan, Yan and Kong found Gao Qinrong again and asked several questions, including why he wrote that article published in the People’s Daily and what people provided the clues. Gao Qinrong said he wrote the article to protect the party’s image and to fight corruption.
In this conversation, Gao Qinrong mentioned Gao Manqiang, who was the deputy director of the Beijing Liaison Office of the Yuncheng District Executive Office, out of “trust in the organization”.
The company’s first and foremost goal is to provide the best possible solution to the problem. Gao Qinrong answered each of them. He was asked to write a written material. Gao wrote it and sent it on the next day.
On December 4, 1998, Gao Qinrong, who was in Beijing to reflect his problems, was visiting a friend who lived in a hotel as he had promised, when he was jumped by three strangers who arrived suddenly in the hallway. He later learned that the three were police officers from Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Gao Qinrong was first taken to Beijing Six Mile Bridge, rented a car and pulled to Taiyuan overnight, transferred to the police car at the entrance of the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department, and was taken to Yuncheng overnight. It was nine o’clock the next morning when they arrived in Yuncheng.
It turned out that the investigation of Gao Qinrong not only did not stop, but also suddenly escalated. Later, Gao Qinrong learned that the provincial discipline inspection commission staff had a long-term package in Yuncheng construction hotel, he again launched “from the open to underground” investigation. Gao Qinrong judged that this was related to the front page of the Southern Weekend on September 18, 1998, which reported on “fake seepage irrigation”, and Gao Qinrong cooperated with the newspaper’s interview, and the newspaper also disclosed the investigation of Gao Qinrong by the Shanxi Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission. In October of the same year, CCTV’s “News Investigation” and “Focus Interview” programs were broadcast in conjunction with the “fake irrigation” in Yuncheng.
Before the arrest of Gao Qinrong, Yuncheng “fake seepage irrigation” incident has been a national sensation.
3
Before Gao Qinrong, on September 29, 1998, Gao Manqiang, the former deputy director of the Beijing Liaison Office of the Yuncheng District Executive Office, was detained.
The treatment of Gao Manqiang was swift. On November 3 of the same year, he was arrested. On December 15 of the same year, the Yuncheng City Court sentenced Gao Manqiang to nine years in prison for the crimes of soliciting and forging seals, and finally decided to execute eight years in prison.
Gao Manqiang, 66, who now lives in Yongji, Yuncheng, was already a disabled man when Interface News met him on April 18, 2003, just after his release from prison in Jinzhong, when he was fatally beaten by three masked men.
It was a morning, Gao Manqiang remember, he walked out of the prison gate less than 100 meters, three masked men with steel pipes pounced on him, one of them held him, the other two wielded a steel pipe at his head. High first subconsciously with the right hand to protect the head, the steel pipe hit his right hand, resulting in serious injuries to the right hand; and then a steel pipe hit, hitting the right skull, Gao Manqiang fell to the ground, lying in a pool of blood. The perpetrators left in a hurry, the murder case has not been solved.
“They are trying to put me to death!” When Gao Manqiang was interviewed by Interface News in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, on July 15, 2016, he recalled that he still had palpitations, “They knew that I knew a lot of things and had contacts in Beijing.”
After being beaten, the unconscious Gao Manqiang was first sent to the neighboring Qixian Hospital, where “the bones of his right skull were shattered, and the bone scraps taken out filled a small bowl,” and he was later sent to Henan for treatment, and had cranial repair surgery in Beijing around 2005. Because of the serious injury to his right skull, his left arm and left leg have lost normal function, he has been in a wheelchair for many years, and now although he is not in a wheelchair, he still needs help to walk, and he cannot take care of himself, even when he is dressed, he needs help.
Gao Manqiang recalled that he met with Gao Qinrong is in Gao Qinrong to expose the “fake seepage irrigation” period, when Gao Qinrong is sending materials to various departments in Beijing, living in the Mission Central Guest House, close to the Yuncheng Administration Liaison Office in Beijing. They were introduced to each other and became acquainted.
Gao Manqiang has been in Beijing for many years and is familiar with many people in the department. It was he who sent the materials written by Gao Qinrong to a key person he knew in the General Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which later led to the Deputy Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection instructing Shanxi Province to “investigate and deal with the matter first”.
According to Gao Manqiang’s recollection, “fake seepage irrigation” was uncovered during the official field of Yuncheng, is in a big change before and after the election, treacherous clouds, complex situation. At that time, Gao Manqiang hands a note written by a senior official of the Yuncheng Executive Office, was written to Gao Manqiang and the then director of the Liaison Office in Beijing Qu, the content is: please give xxx 50,000 yuan snapper money, 100,000 yuan pocket money.
xxx is a senior official in Shanxi province, was in Beijing for medical treatment. According to Gao Manqiang, this note was in his office at the time, Gao Qinrong saw it and took dozens of copies, after which the note was attached to every material sent on the fake seepage irrigation, “which angered those people, claiming to dig the ground to find Gao Qinrong’s gang.”
Gao Manqiang thinks he is in trouble from now on. one day at the end of September 1998, he was caught by the police in Beijing Lize Bridge, Yuncheng, and brought back to Yuncheng.
After being sentenced, Gao Manqiang resisted and kept complaining.
In July 2002, the Shanxi Provincial High Court retried the case of Gao Manqiang, and in December 2003, ruled that Gao Manqiang did not constitute the crime of forging seals, and “committed the crime of impersonating a state employee to defraud, and was exempted from criminal punishment.”
4
On December 5, 1998, Gao Qinrong was brought back to Yuncheng by the Yuncheng Public Security Bureau and was first held overnight in the Xia County Detention Center and then the next day in the Rui Cheng Detention Center. On December 26 of the same year, Gao Qinrong was arrested.
On April 29 and 30, 1999, the Yuncheng City Court heard the case and sentenced Gao Qinrong to 12 years in prison on May 4 of the same year for the three aforementioned crimes.
The lawyer, Li Xiaolin and Yin Zhengyou of Beijing Weiheng Law Firm, recalled in an interview with Interface News in Beijing on July 4, 2016 that he was impressed by the “fake seepage irrigation”, saying, “When I was driving on the highway, there was seepage irrigation on both sides of the highway. He said, “When I was driving along the highway, there were all seepage pools on both sides of the highway, just like a gun building, and there was one not too far away, but these things were useless, they were all fake.”
Because Gao Qinrong was accused of introducing prostitution, the court decided to close the trial on the grounds that it might involve the privacy of individuals. Gao Qinrong recalled that there were no spectators in the courtroom, even immediate family members were not allowed to enter, and colleagues from the newspaper who rushed to show solidarity could only stand in the courtyard, he was handcuffed and saw them through the glass window and said hello.
It was not until the morning of the trial that Li Xiaolin saw onlookers and reporters being turned away from the courtroom that he learned the case was a closed trial, and although he spoke with the judge in charge before the trial, he was never informed of the situation. Li Xiaolin thought this was a “clever design” by the authorities. He then protested and proposed that the trial of the other two charges be held in public, but the court refused.
In court, Li said, “The issues alleged in this case all happened a few years ago, and no one reported them voluntarily, but why were they all brought up again a few years later? This is because the defendant had exposed a major scandal that occurred locally …… The possibility of retaliation cannot be ruled out in the filing of this case, and this is because the defendant was the one who uncovered and first reported a bogus project in the region that cost 270 million yuan that was exposed by numerous media.”
In that year’s trial, Gao Qinrong was stopped by the presiding judge whenever he talked about the “fake seepage irrigation”.
Gao Qinrong: A former Xinhua News Agency reporter’s complaint for 18 years
Three Crimes of “Introducing Prostitution”: Seeing Prostitution = Introducing Prostitution
Although his lawyer pleaded not guilty, the court eventually confirmed all charges against Gao Qinrong “as is.
Regarding the crime of introducing prostitution, the charges in the indictment involved two acts: First, in June 1996, when Gao Qinrong went to the Hedong Hotel in Taiyuan to visit Xiao XX, the chairman of Shenzhen Yisheng Industrial Co., Ltd. and Zhang XX, the general manager of the company, who were in Taiyuan for business contacts, he proposed to find a prostitute for them.
Second, on July 20, 1996, Gao Qinrong introduced Wang Moumou, a prostitute in the guest house of the Vocational Education Center of Shenzhen Yisheng Industrial Co., Ltd. to Zhang xx, manager of the Vocational Education Center, and Yang Moumou, a prostitute in the Opera House of Yuncheng Xinyuan, to Xiao xx. Zhang xx, Xiao xx respectively took Wang Moumou, Yang Moumou has twice in Yuncheng Huaxia Hotel prostitution. In the early hours of July 30 of the same year, they were seized by the patrol of the Yuncheng City Public Security Bureau.
Gao Qinrong recalled to Interface News, he worked briefly in Shenzhen during the period, met Zhang xx who did the hotel disposable small toothpaste, small toothbrush business, one day in 1996, Zhang and his business companion Xiao xx to Taiyuan contact business, contact him, the next morning around nine o’clock, he took his nine-year-old little daughter to visit the hotel where they live, knocked for a while before the door opened, he walked in only to find that “Zhang and Xiao are whoring, the bed is also a camera, self-timer self-recording.” Gao Qinrong rushed to push his daughter toward the door, he did not know is that he and his daughter’s figure was captured in the camera lens, Gao Qinrong judged that this should be the women in the room at the time when they ran into the camera in a hurry to the bathroom, only to capture their father and daughter. Later, after the introduction of high Qinrong, Zhang, Xiao and the two contact business in Yuncheng, during the Yuncheng, they were caught for prostitution again.
In the trial, on the first act, Gao Qinrong denied that it was its introduction of prostitutes to Xiao and Zhang, arguing that they were caught in the act when they visited prostitutes.
“I took my daughter over and it was all caught on camera, if it’s like they say it is, it doesn’t make sense.” Gao Qinrong told Interface News.
The defense lawyer also believes that the testimony of Xiao and Zhang alone cannot prove that Gao Qinrong committed the act of introducing others to prostitution. However, the court held that “the defendant Gao Qinrong entered the room when Zhang XX was naked with the prostitute, which is sufficient to corroborate the authenticity of the testimony of the witnesses Xiao XX and Zhang XX to prove that the defendant introduced the prostitute for him”, so “the defense and defense opinions of the defendant and the defense are not accepted “.
5
The indictment charged Gao Qinrong with fraud, which also involved two acts, one of which was
In March 1996, Gao Qinrong introduced to the Yuncheng Hotel the disposable room hygiene products marketed by Shenzhen Yisheng Industrial Co. In June of the same year, Yisheng Industrial Co. sent 122,877 yuan worth of goods to the Yuncheng Hotel, and the Yuncheng Hotel paid 50,486.8 yuan for the goods and still owed 72,390.2 yuan. On May 20, 1997, Gao Qinrong went to the Yuncheng Hotel to see General Manager Wang Zhigang, falsely claimed that Yisheng Industrial Co., Ltd. owed him personally and gave him 20,000 yuan from the remaining payment for the goods, deceiving Wang Zhigang’s trust and withdrawing 20,000 yuan in cash from the Yuncheng Hotel.
On this episode, according to Gao Qinrong recalls, in 1996, Shanxi Youth Newspaper to raise funds to build a house, he had no money, so he took 40,000 yuan in his mother, back to Taiyuan on the way to live in the Yuncheng Hotel, room theft, this money was stolen, he also reported the case, but the case was not solved. Gao Qinrong and hotel general manager Wang Zhigang is a hometown, he told Wang no money to the unit capital raising, borrowed 20,000 yuan from Wang. Wang agreed, let Gao Qinrong make a note, “he said your two friends in Shenzhen in my account and 70,000 payments, take it from there.” Gao Qinrong then played a debit note, written “Gao Qinrong to receive on behalf of”, Wang Zhigang also signed: “agree”.
Li Xiaolin said in court: “At that time, the defendant must pay the unit to buy a house deposit, in a hurry, and Wang Zhigang agreed to use the method of temporary solution, Wang Zhigang could not use the hotel’s money, had to use the defendant’s friends in Shenzhen company’s payment, so that not only to solve the difficulties of friends, but also not let the hotel suffer losses, in order to comply with the financial regulations, out of the master’s name. The use of the form of IOU. This is a clear, both sides know the civil behavior.” Li Xiaolin does not think it is fraud.
Gao Qinrong was arrested on Dec. 4, 1998, and Interface News learned that just six days before his arrest, on Nov. 28, 1998, the Yuncheng Hotel reported the case to the police. Li Xiaolin argued in court on this: “As an old friend for many years, it is illogical to report the case directly to the Yuncheng City Public Security Bureau when the Shenzhen company did not press for the money and the Grand Hotel did not pursue the defendant.”
6
On the bribery charge, which also involves two acts, including: in July 1996, Gao Qinrong was entrusted by Cheng Jianguo, deputy chief of the patrol police brigade of the Yuncheng City Public Security Bureau, to intercede for his cousin Wang Junxue’s illegal transport of Hongtashan cigarettes seized by the Hejin City Tobacco Company, and received two Yu Xi brand cigarettes worth 720 yuan and 25,000 yuan in cash from Wang Junxue in room 719 of the Yuncheng Hotel.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. In the same year, Cheng’s cousin Wang Junxue to Xi’an cigarette trafficking, in Hejin was detained by the city’s tobacco company, and this batch of cigarettes trafficking “formalities are complete”, he took Cheng to find the director of the Yuncheng City Tobacco Dong, so Dong “in the case of not violating the principles of care” Later, the cigarettes were released. Later, Cheng Jianguo they sent him 25,000 yuan. Gao Qinrong recalled: “I said I could not receive, but Cheng Jianguo said he still owed our mother 30,000 yuan, equal to pay you back, but also owed 5,000 yuan, I accepted it.”
During the complaint stage, Gao’s lawyer Wang Darei said on this charge against Gao back then, Wang Xuejun did not seek improper benefits through Gao Qinrong, because according to the tobacco management regulations back then, there is evidence that Wang transported cigarettes with complete procedures and did not need to be punished.
7
After the first trial, Gao Qinrong appealed to the Yuncheng District Intermediate Court, and in August 1999, his appeal was rejected and the original verdict was upheld. On September 9 of the same year, Gao Qinrong left the detention center and began a long prison sentence.
The first stop was Yongji Prison, a diversion prison, where Gao Qinrong stayed for more than a month, walking in formation and memorizing prison rules every day, and the mosquitoes in the prison were fierce, “a bunch of them, the bite was unbearable.” In Yongji prison, Gao Qinrong met Gao Manqiang, who was locked in before him.
“I went in and saw Gao Manqiang there,” Gao Qinrong recalled. He found the opportunity to chat with Gao Manqiang, who told him that after being arrested in Beijing, he was pulled by the leg, dragged backwards to the jeep and pulled to the Beijing Liaison Office of the Yuncheng Executive Office, “beaten under the covers, and his incisors were knocked out.”
The next diversion, Gao Qinrong went to Jincheng prison, Gao Manqiang went to Jinzhong prison. Jincheng prison used to be a coal mine, the family worried about Gao Qinrong’s safety, about a month, they found a way to transfer him to Jinzhong prison as well.
Jinzhong prison is the first prison in Shanxi province, which is one of the few “hundred years prison” in China. The prison is mainly for felons, it is also an open prison, “allowing foreigners to visit.” Gao Qinrong says it’s also close to Taiyuan, so it’s easy for family members to visit.
Jinzhong Prison. (Photo) Jinzhong Prison. (Photo)
Gao Qinrong recalls that in Jincheng prison that month, the prison authorities see it is a journalist, has been prepared to assign him to the prison tabloid to do editorial work, transferred to the Jinzhong prison, he was with the newly admitted prisoners first three months of training, and then assigned to the prison education department direct team, responsible for editing the prison tabloid.
In Jinzhong Prison, Gao Qinrong has been in charge of editing the Jinzhong Prison Newspaper. The tabloid was published once a week with four pages, the front page was the news of the prison system, the second and third pages were the prisoners’ experiences of serving and reforming their sentences, and the last page published prose or poems written by the prisoners. There are six or seven inmates who are responsible for editing, and Gao Qinrong is in charge of the editorial work.
The time for editing the tabloid is from Monday to Friday. Every morning at six or seven, Gao Qinrong woke up collectively with other prisoners, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and ate. Breakfast consisted of steamed buns, thin rice and salted vegetables. After the meal, the inmates took a small bench, sat in the “number” and waited for the police officers to come over, counted, took roll call, lined up neatly, and were led by the police officers to their work stations. Gao Qinrong and the others were taken into the “editing room” and started working.
At 12:00 noon, the police officers came over again, called the roll, reported the number, lined up, and Gao Qinrong was led back to the “room” for lunch. Lunch is usually rice, noodles and chowder. Repeat the morning work in the afternoon, five or six o’clock back to the “number”. After dinner, it was study time, writing diaries, writing about their experiences, watching news broadcasts, and going to bed around 22:00.
There were no weekends in the prison. On Saturdays and Sundays, Gao Qinrong had to do other work instead of making up tabloids. Jinzhong prison has an aluminum products factory, the production of aluminum pots, aluminum pots and pans, Gao Qinrong also did the work of making aluminum ware, then the aluminum products business is not good, the prison in the surrounding rural areas to solicit some work, so that prisoners pick peppers, pick beans, pounding walnuts.
Gao Qinrong recalls, “The peppers pulled in were cut from the ground with roots, and the prisoners were responsible for picking off the top scattered peppers; the beans harvested by the harvester had dirt and stones inside, and the prisoners were picking and pulling to pick out the dirt and stones; sometimes the walnuts had to be pounded out.” There was a ration for labor, such as 200 pounds of beans per person per day, and Gao Qinrong had to fulfill this ration.
It was a day in and day out. Looking back, Gao Qinrong would laugh and say that he did not lose his journalism business during his years in prison. One year the national prison system writing competition, Gao Qinrong’s two articles won the first prize, one is a reportage, the other is a commentary, “equal to carry back two gold medals to Shanxi.”
At the end of each year, the prison had to fill out a form, and prisoners had to write about their perceptions and attitudes toward crime. Gao Qinrong recalls that in those years in prison, he never admitted his guilt when filling out the form, but wrote about being retaliated against. The head of the education section, who had a good relationship with him, said to him: Qinrong, you have to confess to the crime, you can not reduce your sentence without confessing to the crime. Although Gao Qinrong never pleaded guilty, his sentence was eventually reduced by four years because of his good behavior in prison.
8
In some areas of Yuncheng, seepage irrigation ponds built more than a decade ago still sturdily remain. one afternoon in late June 2016, an Interface News reporter took a bus from downtown Yuncheng City and drove about 30 miles east along the highway, that is, he saw two seepage irrigation ponds on the side of the road.
This is the village of Peiji in Xia County. On both sides of the road are farmlands, planted with grapes and sunflowers. The two ponds are on the ground beside the road, about 30 meters apart. When I look closer, the pools are about 2 meters high and are round buildings made of bricks and cement. Although both have collapsed halfway, the remaining parts still look solid.
A farm woman carrying a pesticide bucket said that the two percolation pools have been here for many years, “said to bury a pipe tube, the land will not be dry, but are not used.”
In an interview with Interface News, a politician who was then a member of the Standing Committee of the Yuncheng Local Committee said that after the “fake seepage irrigation” was revealed in 1998, an investigation team was sent from Shanxi Province to investigate, led by a deputy secretary general of the provincial party committee. As a result, the secretary of the local party committee and a deputy secretary in charge of agriculture during the “fake seepage irrigation” in Yuncheng were disciplined, while the commissioner of the provincial government, who was then the general director of the water-saving seepage irrigation project, was not subject to any treatment.
Gao Manqiang told Interface News that at the time of processing, the then secretary of the local party committee had retired, he only lost his seat on the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, and his treatment was reduced by one level. The deputy secretary in charge of agriculture received, also only a warning or serious warning within the party.
Today’s Gao Qinrong. (Photo: Liu Xianan) Today’s Gao Qinrong. (Photo: Liu Xianan)
Since his release from prison, Gao Qinrong has been slowly integrating into a society he is unfamiliar with, working briefly as a journalist and now as a supervisor in a software company in Taiyuan.
He continues to expose the corruption of individual officials in Shanxi, especially in Yuncheng, through his own media, and has never given up on his case.
At the 2001 National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Yang Weiguang, Gao Zhanxiang and others pointed out in their proposals that “this is a clear case of retaliation, presumption of guilt, and even suspected of planting false accusations of vicious abuse of the law.”
Going from the case file to find the problem, this is the direction Gao Qinrong did not notice until 2015.
He was inspired by his friend Liu Haiqin. Liu Haiqin, also an official from Yuncheng, was the manager of Yuncheng Coal Transportation Company, director of the Sports Committee of Yuncheng Executive Office and director of the Labor Bureau, and was sentenced in 1999 to a decision to execute a seven-year prison term for embezzlement and bribery. Liu Haiqin claimed that he was framed by political enemies and kept complaining. After a retrial was filed, the Yuncheng Intermediate Court acquitted Liu Haiqin in 2010, and Liu was subsequently awarded state compensation and reinstatement.
During the complaint process, Liu Haiqin had copied out his case file and “found that the materials numbered 33-39 in the case file were missing.” Liu Haiqin told Interface News that it was based on his own experience that he repeatedly reminded Gao Qinrong that “you must look for problems in the case file.”
In October 2015, Gao Qinrong went to the court with his lawyer to copy out the whole set of case file materials. His lawyer, Wang Darei, found through reading the files that “the evidence on which the case was based for conviction was not solid and sufficient, and there were contradictions between the main evidence proving the facts of the case.”
For example, the video tape recorded by Shenzhen businessman Zhang xx and Xiao xx in Taiyuan itself was not cross-examined in the trial, and according to the relevant provisions of the law, it cannot be used as conclusive evidence. Moreover, there is new evidence to prove that Wang Zhigang, the key witness who testified that Gao Qinrong defrauded Yuncheng Hotel of 20,000 yuan, gave false testimony. in April 2009, Wu Qiang, deputy general manager of Yuncheng Hotel, went to Hainan to visit Wang Zhigang, general manager, and Gao Qinrong went with Wu when he learned about it. In the presence of Wu Qiang, Wang Zhigang apologized to Gao Qinrong, saying that he had made a false witness. At that time, Wang was already seriously ill and did not want to leave regrets and was willing to re-test Gao Qinrong. Unfortunately, Wang Zhigang died soon after the illness. For this situation, Dare Wang obtained documentary evidence from Wu Qiang.
Based on these circumstances, on February 18, 2016, Wang Darei submitted to the Yuncheng City Intermediate Court an Opinion of Counsel on the case of Gao Qinrong that should be retried. Before that, Gao Qinrong also submitted a complaint again. Soon came the “good news”: Yuncheng Central Court accepted these materials, said it would be submitted to the trial committee to discuss whether to file.
In the years after his release, Gao Qinrong did not know how many times he had been to the Yuncheng Central Court for the complaint, and on June 27, 2016, the Interface News reporter came here again with him. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. The vice president in charge of the court Wang Fuxiao said, “to the trial committee, and then see how the final decision, now the case is very much, not yet the turn.” Dong Chaoke, executive vice president in charge of the trial committee, also said that whether to start a retrial or dismissal, to be submitted to the trial committee to discuss.
“The court is a place that talks about procedures and entities, and will do it according to the procedures.” Gao Wenjun told Interface News.
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