This is a judicial process that has been out of control from the very beginning.
When the law enforcement officers who used torture to extract confessions are themselves investigated and punished, and when the public security, procuratorate, and court, knowing they lack jurisdiction, still insist on seeing the case “through to the end”, what we see is not just the illegal actions of individual personnel, but the complete disorder of the local judicial system.
With procedural justice and evidence-based judgment both failing, behind the dispute over 20 million in immigration funds lies a constantly expanding judicial black hole.
A judgment that was revoked in the second instance due to “procedural violations”, after being sent back for retrial, has once again fallen into a haze on the fundamental issue of jurisdiction;
A prosecutor’s public promise of “withdrawal of the lawsuit if there is no new evidence”, after waiting for months, only brought “zero evidence” and procedural idling at the pre-trial conference.
On the one hand, the bottom line of the rule of law is constantly being breached, and on the other hand, judicial power is running wild outside of the procedures.
When the guardians of justice become the destroyers of order, when the court becomes a continuation of illegal acts, we have to ask: Is this unresolved case stuck in the reality of insufficient evidence, or is it trapped in a certain unspoken “unwritten rule” of the local judicial ecosystem?
Xiangxiang is presenting us with a sample worthy of nationwide vigilance with its judicial malaise.
Continuous sleeplessness for 72 hours, being forced to drink toilet water to survive—under the torture of the Xiangxiang police, Zhang Yi was forced to sign a “confession” that she still cannot let go of. What is even more shocking is that this ordinary civil dispute, which should have been under the jurisdiction of Shenzhen, was forcibly twisted into a criminal fraud case under the “joint cooperation” of the Xiangxiang public security, procuratorate, and court.
Since being subjected to torture and confession three years ago, in the nightmares of Zhang Yi (pseudonym), a graduate student at Peking University, the smoke of the small dark room, the cold water of the shower, and the strong light of the confinement room have intertwined to form a chaotic space from which she cannot wake up.
In that room of three or four square meters: the ground was covered with cockroaches and ants, the stench of the toilet filled the air, high-powered spotlights on the ceiling shone on her 24 hours a day, the indoor temperature reached over 50 degrees Celsius, and if she was thirsty, she could only drink the water from the toilet…
In this confinement room, she was locked up for 16 consecutive days.
Involved in an immigration fraud case, Zhang Yi was taken away from her home in Hefei, Anhui Province, by Xiangxiang, Hunan Province police at 2 p.m. on July 28, 2022, and was eventually taken to the Longdong Police Station of the Xiangxiang City Public Security Bureau, where she was detained in a “small dark room” until 2 p.m. on the 30th. During this time, without any procedures, she was constantly subjected to torture by the law enforcement officers, and she did not sleep for a full 72 hours.
Subsequently, Zhang Yi was detained at the law enforcement hall of the Xiangxiang City Public Security Bureau. After repeated interrogations, because she was unwilling to plead guilty and accept punishment, she was taken by the police to a local hotel on July 31 and placed under residential surveillance for 16 days. After that, Zhang Yi “finally” was sent to the Xiangtan City Detention Center, but what awaited her was another 16-day confinement.
Recently, at the pre-trial conference held by the Xiangxiang City People’s Court, Zhang Yi had to recall this painful memory in public again. At the same time, issues such as torture to extract confessions and jurisdictional objections in this case have once again attracted attention. At the pre-trial conference, another defendant in this case, Zheng Xiongyu, also publicly reported that law enforcement officer Liao Yiming illegally took 1.2 million yuan from his bank card.
The Xiangxiang City Court stated that it would continue to review key issues such as illegal evidence and jurisdiction.
Previously, the Xiangxiang City Court had made a first-instance judgment on April 24, 2024, sentencing the defendant Zhang Yi to 11 years and 6 months in prison. On August 8, the Xiangtan Intermediate People’s Court ruled in the second instance that the original trial procedure was illegal, revoked the original judgment, and sent it back for retrial. However, the case has been delayed in opening due to jurisdictional issues.
According to Zhang Yi, the Xiangxiang Public Security Bureau, Procuratorate, and Court have no judicial jurisdiction over this case because the place of the incident is not in Xiangxiang. According to the law enforcement officers, the case was able to be established in Xiangxiang entirely as a result of the victim Xiao’s financial planning.
“During the case handling process, the public security organs have problems such as fraud and extortion, acceptance of bribes, illegal case handling, torture to extract confessions, and the establishment of false jurisdiction.” For this reason, Zhang Yi’s father, Zhang Jianshe (pseudonym), has repeatedly reported online the illegal handling of the case by Yi Weiqiang, the former deputy director of the Xiangxiang City Public Security Bureau, and Wan Qijun, the former director of the Longdong Police Station, which led to his daughter’s wrongful conviction.
After that, Wan Qijun was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 450,000 yuan for the crimes of embezzlement of public funds, bribery, and money laundering; many other police officers involved in illegal case handling were also investigated and dealt with. However, Yi Weiqiang was only dismissed from his post and was not held accountable for any criminal responsibility.
3 days and 3 nights without sleep
3 records of confessions disappeared
That experience of torture to extract confessions is still vivid in Zhang Yi’s memory.
At 2 p.m. on July 28, 2022, Zhang Yi was taken away from her home in Hefei by the Xiangxiang police and taken to Xiangxiang, where she was handcuffed and taken by high-speed rail to the “small dark room” of the Longdong Police Station. The case handlers and guards smoked continuously inside, making it difficult to breathe, and she sat on a wooden bench all night. Around 8 a.m. the next day, the police began to interrogate her for 15 hours, and recorded 3 confessions.
According to Zhang Yi’s description: On the morning of July 30, she had not slept for two nights in a row, and she was completely drowsy and unable to continue the interrogation. At that time, Yi Qingbiao, the former deputy director of the Longdong Police Station, said to her, “I am very dissatisfied with your confession”, and then asked someone to take her to a shower room upstairs to take a cold shower. “The male police officer stood at the door the whole time, and the door of the shower room was half-open, watching me wash.”
After taking a cold shower, Zhang Yi was taken to a room on the second floor. “Law enforcement officer Li Rucheng took out the incriminating confession materials and asked me to recite them. During the period, I was trembling and mentally distracted, and I could not complete the recitation task, so I was beaten and insulted by him.” Zhang Yi said that after reciting for several hours, at 2 p.m. that day, she was taken to the interrogation room on the first floor of the Xiangxiang City Public Security Bureau to record the confession that she had memorized in advance.
Zhang Yi said: “Before the interrogation, Li Rucheng threatened me many times that there would be simultaneous audio and video recording, and I must answer according to the content I recited in the morning. After the interrogation began, the law enforcement officer inserted the pre-prepared U disk into the computer. In fact, before the interrogation even began, the confession had already been written.”
After that, Zhang Yi was forced to sit on the interrogation chair in the interrogation room for another night. At this point, she had not slept for 3 days and 3 nights.
It is worth noting that the confession of July 30, which was “recited”, was Zhang Yi’s first confession in the case file, and the three confessions she recorded at the Longdong Police Station before were all missing. The case file shows that Zhang Yi arrived on July 30, and received a criminal detention notice at 4 p.m. that day.
This means that from being taken away from her home at 2 p.m. on July 28 to recording the confession at 2 p.m. on July 30, Zhang Yi “disappeared” for a full 3 days. In this regard, Wang Dianxue pointed out at the pre-trial conference that the actions of the case handlers constituted illegal detention.
On July 31, on the way to send Zhang Yi to the detention center, the escorting police received a phone call and quickly returned to Xiangxiang, and took Zhang Yi to a hotel in Xiangxiang for 16 days of residential surveillance. Later, according to the police, it was because her detention measures were changed that afternoon, from criminal detention to residential surveillance.
During residential surveillance, Wan Qijun, in collusion with his mistress Xiao Fengying, threatened her, and “controlled” Zhang Jianshe in a hotel next to Zhang Yi’s residential surveillance, forcing Zhang Yi and Zhang Jianshe to return more than 13 million yuan in contract payments to Wan Qijun’s personal account, and wrote a letter of apology and confession.
It was not until August 16 that Zhang Yi was sent to the Xiangtan City Detention Center by Wan Qijun and Xiao Fengying, and began another 16-day confinement.
Zhang Yi said that there were several people who were sent to the detention center with her at the time, but only she was detained in the confinement room without reason. Later, after she repeatedly reported to the resident prosecutor, she was transferred to the No. 11 cell of the women’s ward on September 1.
The second instance determined that the procedure was illegal
The original judgment was revoked and sent back for retrial
From November 20 to 21, 2023, the immigration fraud case involving Zhang Yi was publicly tried in the Xiangxiang City Court. Prior to this, the case had been returned to the procuratorate for supplementary investigation due to insufficient evidence and unclear facts.
The indictment of the Xiangxiang City People’s Procuratorate shows that in this immigration fraud case, Zheng Xiongyu and Zhang Yi fabricated the false identity of a Malaysian “royal family member” and the fact that they could provide Singapore immigration services, etc. After gaining the trust of the victims in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Xiangxiang, they signed immigration service agreements with them, and in the name of collecting consulting service fees and deposits, they defrauded a total of 20 million yuan.
During the trial, the prosecution believed that Zheng Xiongyu was the principal offender and Zhang Yi was an accomplice, and the two defendants should be held criminally responsible for the crimes of contract fraud and fraud.
Zhang Yi argued that this case was not fraud, but a contract dispute, and she was only collecting money on behalf of others, and she had dealt with the refund matters in a timely manner when disputes arose between the two parties. Wang Dianxue, the lawyer from Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, who was Zhang Yi’s defense attorney, also believed that this was only a civil contract dispute and made a not-guilty defense for Zhang Yi during the trial.
Ultimately, the Xiangxiang City Court made Criminal Judgment No. (2022) Xiang0381 Xingchu No. 541 on April 24, 2024, finding that the defendant Zheng Xiongyu was guilty of fraud and sentenced him to 14 years and 6 months in prison and fined him 500,000 yuan; the defendant Zhang Yi was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 11 years and 6 months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that during the trial of the case, Zhang Yi and her defense attorney had repeatedly questioned the issue of jurisdiction, believing that the place where the case occurred had no criminal jurisdictional connection with Xiangxiang, and that “the case was a civil contract dispute and did not constitute a criminal case”.
Wang Dianxue believed that the relevant facts involved in the case (including the remittance behavior) all occurred in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and the two suspects lived in Hefei and Beijing respectively. According to the provisions of regional jurisdiction in criminal cases, the Xiangxiang City Court did not have the jurisdiction to try the case.
In this regard, the Xiangxiang City Court rejected it in the first-instance judgment, on the grounds that Zheng Xiongyu and Zhang Yi still committed fraud during their stay in Xiangxiang with the victim Xiao, and Xiangxiang City belonged to the place of the crime. At the same time, the Xiangtan Intermediate Court had issued a written decision to designate the Xiangxiang City Court to try the case.
After the first instance, both Zheng Xiongyu and Zhang Yi appealed. On the morning of August 2, 2024, the case was tried in the second instance at the Xiangtan Intermediate Court.
During the trial, Wang Dianxue again raised the jurisdictional objection, and at the same time raised a series of questions about the procedural issues in the police’s handling of the case (including the missing three confessions of Zhang Yi, the existence of torture to extract confessions during the case handling process, etc.), and requested the exclusion of illegal evidence.
Wang Dianxue said that the unfavorable confessions of Zhang Yi in the case file were all made against her will after being subjected to torture and confession, and were illegal evidence; Zhang Yi was taken away from her home in Hefei and, after entering the detention center, suffered “threats from her family, being hit on the shoulders with books, being pushed and insulted, being confined in a confinement room without reason, and drinking toilet water” and other forms of torture to extract confessions.
At the same time, Wang Dianxue also questioned the Xiangtan Intermediate Court’s designation of the Xiangxiang City Court to try the case. The presiding judge replied in court that “the Xiangtan Intermediate Court only designated the level of jurisdiction for this case and never designated the regional jurisdiction”. The jurisdictional objection will be reviewed after the trial.
In the second instance, after the defense attorney raised the issue of missing confessions and torture to extract confessions in the case handling process and requested the exclusion of illegal evidence, the collegiate bench announced a ten-minute adjournment half an hour after the opening of the court. After the court resumed, the court immediately announced an adjournment. The Xiangtan Intermediate Court stated in court that it would verify the illegal evidence and jurisdiction.
A week later, the Xiangtan Intermediate Court made Criminal Ruling No. (2022) Xiang03 Xingzhong No. 244 on August 8: revoking the first-instance judgment and sending it back to the Xiangxiang City Court for retrial. The ruling showed that the Xiangtan Intermediate Court believed that “the original trial procedure was illegal and may affect a fair trial”.
Torture to extract confessions and acceptance of bribes
Law enforcement officers are imprisoned
“This is a wrongful case created by bribing the public security, and it is a typical case of criminal means intervening in civil disputes.”
Zhang Jianshe (pseudonym), Zhang Yi’s father, submitted a report to the relevant departments, stating that in June 2022, Xiao, through his wife Feng and other people’s accounts, split and paid the so-called immigration contract payment, and was found to be suspected of money laundering and tax evasion, and Xiao’s company was repeatedly fined for violations abroad. In addition, Feng’s involvement in illegal surrogacy organization and material fabrication were also reported.
He believes that after the illegal behavior of Xiao’s company and family was discovered, involving breach of contract liability, the contract breach amount reached 20 million yuan. In order not to bear the breach of contract liability, Xiao, Feng and his wife, together with Tang (Xiao’s cousin), bribed the Xiangxiang public security, procuratorate, and court, and participated in the planning and implementation of this case of using criminal means to intervene in civil disputes.
Relevant media reports show that Feng, Xiao, and Tang bribed Wan Qijun, the former director of the Longdong Police Station, with hundreds of thousands of yuan in the name of case handling expenses, and Tang, through local lawyer Li, smoothed the relationship and bribed the relevant person in charge of the Xiangxiang City Procuratorate and Yi Weiqiang, the former deputy director of the Xiangxiang City Public Security Bureau.
“The reason why we were implicated as the collection agent is because Feng and Xiao were afraid that the immigration matter would be exposed, but in order to get back the immigration funds that had been transferred, they designed a trap to frame the collection agent.” Zhang Jianshe said. The case file materials show that on July 8, 2022, the victim Xiao in this case had reported the case to the Nanshan Police Station of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, but it was not filed.
The recording before Wan Qijun was investigated also showed that Yi Weiqiang instructed him to handle the case illegally, “eat the plaintiff and eat the defendant” and “the collection agent is the biggest victim, but Yi Weiqiang arranged to force the collection agent into the case, and to get back (the immigration contract payment) 20 million”.
On March 27, 2025, Zhang Jianshe publicly reported Yi Weiqiang for the third time, claiming that he had accepted a large bribe from Xiao and Feng, abused criminal means to intervene in civil disputes, and directed his subordinates to plan jurisdiction and create a wrongful case.
After the public reporting video was released, the local Discipline Inspection Commission responded that Wan Qijun and other case handlers accepted bribes, which were in the name of case handling expenses, but the money received by Yi Weiqiang was transferred to him by Wan Qijun from the money received from Tang, and he did not constitute a crime so far, because “he did not know the true origin of these funds”!
After that, Yi Weiqiang was dismissed; Wan Qijun was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 450,000 yuan for the crimes of embezzlement of public funds, bribery, and money laundering; many other police officers involved in illegal case handling were also investigated and dealt with.
Jurisdictional disputes are intensifying
No new evidence appeared in the retrial
On October 28, 2025, at the pre-trial conference held by the Xiangxiang City Court, the issues of jurisdictional disputes, torture to extract confessions, and procedural violations once again became the focus of the dispute in this case.
The latest news shows that: Regarding the issue of jurisdiction in this case, the Hunan Provincial High People’s Court has made a decision on designated jurisdiction No. (2025) Xiang Xingxia 74 on May 29, and in accordance with Article 27 of the Criminal Procedure Law and Article 20, paragraph 2 of the “Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Application”, decided to designate the Xiangxiang City Court to try the case in accordance with the first-instance procedure of criminal cases.
According to this decision, the Xiangxiang City Court is preparing to restart the trial procedure of the case.
In this regard, Zhang Yi and her defense attorney Wang Dianxue both believe that the Hunan High Court’s application of the legal provisions of “unclear jurisdiction” is not appropriate, because the main behaviors involved in the case all occurred in Shenzhen, not unclear jurisdiction.
Lawyer Wang Dianxue also pointed out that the legal documents for designated jurisdiction by the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department have not been seen so far, and the evidence obtained by the Xiangxiang City investigation agency before without jurisdiction is all illegal evidence.
In this regard, the Xiangxiang City Procuratorate responded temporarily at the pre-trial conference: After just verifying, the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department also made a decision on designated jurisdiction.
“Even if the Public Security Department makes a decision on designated jurisdiction now, it cannot make up for the illegality of obtaining evidence without jurisdiction before. Moreover, in the jurisdictional issue of this case, there are criminal acts of bribery by investigators and bribery by the victim. Wan Qijun, one of the investigators, has been sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment by an effective judgment, and Xiangxiang is obviously not suitable for jurisdiction and should not be designated to Xiangxiang for jurisdiction.” Wang Dianxue said.
According to reports, the Xiangxiang City Court also confirmed at the pre-trial conference that the “procedural violations” recognized by the second-instance ruling mainly refer to the problem of jurisdiction, that is, the Xiangxiang City Court does not have regional jurisdiction.
“In fact, before the original first-instance trial, the Xiangxiang City Court also believed that it did not have jurisdiction, and on March 16, 2023, returned the case to the procuratorate in accordance with the law, but the Xiangxiang City Procuratorate refused to accept it.” Wang Dianxue believes that the actions of the Xiangxiang City Procuratorate violate the law.
On March 4 this year, Xiong Chuwen said that the case would be supplemented and investigated by the public security organs, “look at the evidence, and if the evidence is insufficient, the case will be withdrawn”. However, since the second-instance ruling was sent back for retrial, it has undergone a supplementary investigation of as long as 15 months, and the prosecution has still not been able to provide new evidence.
At the pre-trial conference, Wang Dianxue again requested the exclusion of illegal evidence due to the existence of torture to extract confessions.
According to reports, the Xiangxiang City Discipline Inspection Commission confirmed in its reply to the real-name report: In this case, Yi Weiqiang and many law enforcement officers accepted money, and the witness Tang participated in the fact of bribing the case handlers. In addition, the judgment of Wan Qijun also shows that the law enforcement officer Liao Yiming and the witness Tang have illegal and criminal content related to this case.
In this regard, the Xiangxiang City Court stated that it would continue to review key issues such as illegal evidence and jurisdiction.
On the same day, Zheng Xiongyu also reported on the spot that Liao Yiming embezzled a large amount of funds from his bank card and applied to the Xiangxiang City Procuratorate and Court to investigate this.
Zheng Xiongyu reflected that after being criminally detained in July 2022, a bank card seized by Liao Yiming did not appear in the seizure list. Later, when he cooperated with the Xiangxiang City Discipline Inspection Commission to investigate Wan Qijun, he found that more than 1.2 million yuan in that bank card had been taken away.
Zhang Yi also pointed out that Liao Yiming also seized the salary cards of Zheng Xiongyu’s two assistants and took 130,000 yuan from the cards in 25 installments within a week, of which 30,000 yuan was transferred to Wan Qijun’s personal bank card. The judgment of Wan Qijun shows that these 130,000 yuan were all taken away by Wan Qijun, and the court determined that it was embezzlement of public funds.
In this regard, Xiong Chuwen said that he would conduct an investigation and recover the stolen money after the meeting, and would quickly return the money to the victims after recovery.
Postscript:
Zhang Yi’s experience is not only an individual tragedy, but also a mirror reflecting the judicial ecology.
From the “three days of disappearance” to the “sixteen days of confinement”, from the cold shower to force confessions to reciting the confession script, what this case reveals is not only the illegal acts of individual personnel, but also the complete procedural loss of control from investigation to jurisdiction. When the identity of a “Peking University graduate student” cannot become a talisman to avoid torture to extract confessions, we have to think: How should the rights defense line of ordinary citizens be protected?
In this case, the failure of procedural justice and the hollowing out of the rules of evidence together constitute a dangerous judicial sample. It warns us that once the operation of power deviates from the track of the rule of law, citizens of any identity may become victims of procedural violence.
Now, although the case has returned to court, the review of illegal evidence and jurisdiction is not only related to Zhang Yi’s innocence, but also to the restoration of judicial credibility in one place, and the public’s most basic expectations for the rule of law.
We record this case in the hope that such “experiences” will eventually become the dust of history; we pursue the truth, believing that the realization of justice must not be done in the name of justice, but do unjust things.
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