In October 2023, Bao Jiye and his eldest son once again came to the Xinle Hotel, where they were “designated to reside,” and found that the “small dark room” originally had windows, and the sound-absorbing sponge pads on the walls had been removed.
On July 20, 2022, Bao Qinrui, 34, passed away while being held under residential surveillance at a designated location.
Thirteen days before the incident, he was taken from Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang City, to Xinle Hotel in Xinle City to be placed under residential surveillance at a designated location on suspicion of provoking trouble. On the same day, his father, uncle, and eight other villagers were also taken away. They were accused of participating in the beating of migrant workers, illegal detention, and loan sharking activities, but were later determined not to be subject to criminal prosecution.
The eight people told the reporter that during their residential surveillance, they were subjected to beatings, electric shocks, intimidation, and other forms of torture. On the night of Bao Qinrui’s death, more than one person heard screams that lasted for half an hour.
The injury assessment result for Bao Qinrui’s third uncle was a minor injury of level two. His hospitalization records during residential surveillance showed that he had two fractured ribs.
More than a year later, the family still hasn’t figured out the cause of Bao Qinrui’s death. After the bail was lifted in June this year, Bao Jiye and his family have reported the situation of being subjected to torture to the procuratorate, hoping to investigate the case handlers.
Xinle Hotel is about 100 kilometers away from Gaoyi County, where the nine people under residential surveillance were located.
Death 13 days after “designated residence”
On the afternoon of July 20, 2022, after Bao Qinrui’s body was carried out, blood flowed from his ears and nostrils. According to several family members who were present, there were multiple bruises on the body, and the toes had traces of suspected needle pricks, and a piece of flesh the size of a soybean was missing from the soles of his feet.
34-year-old Bao Qinrui died on the 13th day after being placed under residential surveillance at a designated location.
Bao Qinrui was a staff member of the Housing and Construction Bureau of Gaoyi County, Shijiazhuang City. At dawn on July 7, he was taken away from his home in Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang City, by police officers. The notification of residential surveillance at a designated location issued by the Xinle City Public Security Bureau that the family later received stated that the reason was “suspected of provoking trouble.” On the same day, his father Bao Jiye, his elder brother Bao Shaorui, his second uncle Bao Jizhong and his son Bao Zhuorui, his third uncle Bao Jitao, as well as Bao Xiaolong, Bao Shifeng, and Bao Yanqiang from the same village were also taken away.
The nine people are all from Gaoyi County and have houses in Yuhua District and Gaoyi County, but the designated residence was set in Xinle Hotel in Xinle City, about 100 kilometers away from Gaoyi County.
There was no light in the “small dark room” of Xinle Hotel. Several people who were under residential surveillance with Bao Qinrui recalled that they were handcuffed behind their backs on iron training chairs, with blindfolds over their heads, and the air conditioner was turned down to 16 degrees, with cold air blowing on their heads. According to several people’s recollections, during residential surveillance, each meal was a steamed bun with pickled vegetables and about 100 milliliters of water, and whether they could eat it depended on the mood of the security guard on duty. They had to report to go to the toilet, 30 seconds for urination, 60 seconds for defecation, and they would be forcibly taken away if they couldn’t finish.
On the evening of July 19, Bao Qinrui was sent from the hotel to Xinle City Hospital for rescue. A few days later, Bao Jiye, who was still under residential surveillance, was informed that his youngest son, Bao Qinrui, had passed away on July 20.
The cause of his son’s death is still an unsolved mystery. As a father, Bao Jiye can only try to reconstruct the last few hours before his death from the rescue records.
The rescue records show that the hospital received a call at 21:38 on the evening of the 19th. When the ambulance arrived at the scene, Bao Qinrui was in poor spirits and had difficulty breathing. After arriving at the emergency room, he was unconscious. According to the accompanying police officers, Bao Qinrui had a transient syncope during activity, lasting about 1 minute. After regaining consciousness, he said he had a backache. The emergency room’s preliminary diagnosis was cardiac arrest and supraventricular tachycardia.
At 22:12, Bao Qinrui was pushed into the emergency room. Three minutes later, his electrocardiogram turned into a straight line. The rescue lasted for more than three hours, but in the end, it failed to save his life.
According to Bao Qinrui’s relatives, on the day Bao Qinrui passed away, the procuratorate had already examined the body and taken photos for evidence and intervened in the investigation. It was not until the end of March this year that the Shijiazhuang Municipal People’s Procuratorate arranged for an autopsy of his body. Bao Jiye and his eldest son were present. That was eight months after his youngest son had passed away, and it was the first time they had seen the body.
Bao Jiye said that in June this year, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate showed him the autopsy report issued by the Judicial Appraisal Center of Shanxi Medical University. One of the conclusions was “excluding death caused by mechanical injury, excluding death caused by poisoning, and not excluding arrhythmia and cardiac arrest caused by sinoatrial node disease.”
Bao Jiye could not accept such a conclusion and refused to sign it. He believed that his son’s death was related to being subjected to torture.
Accusations of being subjected to torture
The criminal case involving the nine people was named the “5·25” special case, and it was jointly handled by a special case team composed of the Yuhua Branch of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Xinle City Public Security Bureau, and the Gaoyi County Public Security Bureau.
The reporter learned that around April 2022, Sun Yong and several workers reported to the police that they were beaten when they went to the Yuzhu Ceramic Factory to demand wages in 2014. Previously, Sun Yong and the Yuzhu factory did have a dispute over the project payment, and Bao Jiye was the chairman and shareholder of the factory.
Bao Jiye recalled that on July 7, 2022, they were first hooded and handcuffed and taken to the case handling center of the Gaoyi County Public Security Bureau. A “flat-top” man took out a questioning record for him to sign, which stated that he had illegally detained, engaged in loan sharking, organized gambling, and beat Sun Yong and other migrant workers in 2014. “I have never done any of the above,” he was slapped because he refused to sign. The others who were taken away on the same day were also questioned whether they had participated in the above-mentioned criminal activities, and they all denied it.
That day, they were taken to Xinle Hotel and arranged in two rooms respectively. During this period, they were wearing restraints and blindfolds while sitting on iron chairs. They could not sleep at night and were subjected to different degrees of torture, including slapping, electric shocks, beatings, and intimidation. The case handlers repeatedly asked them to admit that they had participated in the beating of migrant workers under the instructions of Bao Jiye and Bao Jizhong.
The reporter found through the judgment documents website that in 2014, one of the nine people was serving a prison sentence and did not have the opportunity to beat Sun Yong and others. The other people also stated that they had not done those things and had not even met Sun Yong and other workers.
According to their accounts, the torture focused on Bao Jiye’s family.
Bao Qinrui’s third uncle, Bao Jitao, said that in addition to beatings and electric shocks, the case handlers also used needles, smashed fingernails, and beatings with belts to make him confess. His beard was also set on fire with matches.
On July 21, Bao Jitao was sent to the hospital. The hospitalization records showed that when he was admitted, his left 6th and 7th ribs were fractured, his left calf was slightly swollen, the skin on his left knee was damaged and had scabbed over, and he had red rashes on both calves.
The two sons became bargaining chips for the interrogators to make Bao Jiye confess. Bao Jiye recalled that once, he was taken upstairs, and screams kept coming from the room next door, “Old Bao, listen, is it Bao Shaorui or Bao Qinrui?” Bao Jiye felt that if he confessed to something he hadn’t done, he would never be able to explain it clearly, but the development of the situation still exceeded his expectations.
On July 19, the father and son were in the same room. Bao Jiye said that in the afternoon of that day, he heard a security guard say that they were going to deal with No. 37 (37 was Bao Qinrui’s code name) at night.
At night, Bao Qinrui reported that he wanted to change his posture, but was not allowed. After that, whether Bao Qinrui moved or made a sound, Bao Jiye saw the security guard go over and beat his youngest son through the gap in the blindfold, “Who told you to move yourself!” Not long after, several case handlers took Bao Qinrui away from the room.
Screams then rang out and disappeared after about half an hour. Then, Bao Jiye heard the security guard in the room say in a low voice, “It’s over, he’s been electrocuted (dialect, transliteration).” Bao Zhuorui, the nephew, said that he also heard this sentence at the time.
That night, the youngest son was not brought back to the room. Bao Jiye thought that the meaning of “electrocuted” was that he had been electrocuted too severely. He comforted himself that it was better for his son to be taken to another room, otherwise it would be heartbreaking to watch him by his side.
At night, the handcuffs and shackles of the other eight people were removed, and the iron chairs were also removed. After that, they were no longer subjected to torture.
The news of the youngest son’s death came around the 23rd (because they couldn’t distinguish the date during the designated residence, this was Bao Jiye’s estimate). Bao Jiye could not accept the statement that his youngest son died of illness. Bao Qinrui had been a soldier and had always been in good physical condition, and he had a physical examination on the second day of being placed under residential surveillance. According to the case handlers, there was no problem at all.
Notification of residential surveillance at a designated location
Fabricated reports for “revenge”
In September 2022, when the police officers found the whistleblower Sun Yong again for investigation, he overturned his previous confession of “being beaten by workers when demanding wages from the Yuzhu factory.”
Sun Yong told the reporter that he reported Bao Jiye’s family at the instigation of “Black Boy” Bao Mouqiang. Bao Mouqiang and Bao Jiye and others were from the same village and had conflicts with Bao Jizhong, as well as the families of Bao Yanqiang, Bao Shifeng, and Bao Xiaolong, and had threatened to retaliate. In the mouths of several surrounding villagers, “Black Boy” is a well-known “village bully” in the county.
According to the statements of the parties involved, from 2013 to 2015, when the Yuzhu factory was still under construction, Bao Jizhong was in charge, and Sun Yong, as the contractor, contracted the ground hardening project of the factory, and the project payment was paid in installments. In 2016, the construction work was completed, and Bao Jizhong left. Later, Bao Jiye became the chairman and shareholder.
In 2020, Sun Yong found that the total amount of the project recorded by both parties was inconsistent, which was related to the final payment of 200,000 yuan. For this reason, he went to the factory to find Bao Jiye, but because the employee in charge of recording the project volume had already left, the inconsistent project volume could not be explained face to face. The two parties discussed that they would re-verify it together later. At that time, Sun Yong was still worried about it, “I was wondering if they didn’t want to give me the money?”
Sun Yong said that in April 2022, “Black Boy” found him and said that he could help him get back the project payment, on the condition that he find a few workers who had worked with him and say that they were beaten when they went to the factory to demand the project payment in 2014. After the matter was done, each worker could get 200,000 yuan, and he could get more.
Sun Yong questioned why the two of them didn’t know each other before, and why the other party wanted to help him? “Black Boy” said that he was at odds with Bao Jizhong, the secretary of the village party branch, and that before the village cleaned up the streets and cleared the things that “Black Boy” had piled up on the streets, Bao Jizhong and his family had repeatedly asked the village committee and his home for compensation, saying, “Let’s wait and see.”
On that day, Sun Yong contacted several workers who had worked at Yuzhu. In the home of one of the workers, they filmed a report video according to “Black Boy’s” statement and identified the Bao family to the police officers.
A worker told the reporter that he thought it was a good thing that fell from the sky at the time, and he could get 200,000 yuan just by saying a few words. Another worker said that he had not thought that his actions would violate the law, “I just thought that they would give me money, and I would cooperate.”
In fact, the workers had only seen Bao Jizhong and did not know the other members of the Bao family. Several people recalled that on that day, they identified seven or eight “attackers” based on the photos, and when they couldn’t say their names, “the police lifted the photos, and their names were written below, and I read them out.” When recording the confession, “Black Boy” stood aside and supplemented.
In the following months, they did not contact “Black Boy.” Two workers said that they have not yet received the money promised by the other party.
Last September, the news that Bao Jiye and the other nine people were “arrested” came, and Sun Yong realized that his actions were wrong. Later, the police officers had investigated him twice, and he told the truth.
The reporter found that the video of “reporting the criminal gang headed by Bao Jiye and Bao Jizhong” is still circulating on the Internet, and the release date is this April. The whistleblower is Zhang Shuke, who had contracted the project at Yuzhu and claimed that in 2014, the Yuzhu Ceramic Factory maliciously owed him 600,000 yuan in project payment through fraudulent means, and he was beaten and insulted when he went to demand the payment.
Similar to Sun Yong’s statement, Zhang Shuke also said that the video was posted online by “Black Boy.” In his later apology video, he said that “Black Boy” said that he and Bao Jiye and Bao Jizhong were “not on good terms” and had found people “above” and that as long as he did as he said, he could get Zhang Shuke’s money back.
Bao Jiye said that before the report, he and Zhang Shuke had not met, and the other party had not mentioned the matter of owing the project payment. In May this year, after verification by both parties, it was found that there was no outstanding project payment.
Bao Shifeng, Bao Yanqiang, and Bao Xiaolong, who are from the same village as the Bao family, revealed that “Black Boy” also had grievances with their families and had previously threatened to retaliate.
“Black Boy” denied these statements. He told the reporter that he and Sun Yong and Zhang Shuke knew each other before and knew that Yuzhu owed them project payments, but he did not instruct others to report Bao Jiye and others. It was after Bao Jiye and others were released on bail that they changed their statements through “coercion and inducement.” In the words of “Black Boy,” the Bao Jiye and Bao Jizhong brothers were arrogant and domineering because they “had a background” and, in addition to owing project payments, had also done many bad things.
Photo of Bao Qinrui before his death
The procuratorate agreed to a second autopsy by the family
On September 1, 2022, Bao Jiye and his eldest son were released on bail, and on the 28th, the other six people were also released on bail. On June 19, 2023, the eight people had their bail lifted. The decision to lift the bail by the Xinle City Public Security Bureau showed that it was found that criminal responsibility should not be pursued.
However, for Bao Jiye’s family, the pain brought by this “unforeseen disaster” cannot be smoothed over. Bao Qinrui’s brother said that after the incident, he often dreamed of his younger brother and woke up crying in the middle of the night. During the conversation, when he mentioned his younger brother, he couldn’t control his emotions and burst into tears without warning.
Some habits constantly remind him of the existence of that “nightmare”: when he hears the sound of the door “squeaking,” he will be inexplicably nervous—the door leading to the “small dark room” from the hall of the Xinle Hotel will make such a sound when it is opened and closed.
On October 13, 2023, Bao Jiye and his son led the reporter to revisit the Xinle Hotel. Walking into the hotel lobby, to the right is the front desk and the guest room elevator. Behind the lobby, on the left, are several “small dark rooms” hidden behind it. If you don’t deliberately look for them, it’s hard to notice the existence of these small doors.
When the father and son opened the door again, they found that the “small dark room” had windows. Through the windows, they could see the gym opposite. Bao Jiye stood in the empty room, re-examining the surroundings. The sound-absorbing sponge pads on the walls were removed, and the wall skin was torn off.
More than a year ago, after learning of Bao Qinrui’s death, Bao Jiye proposed to investigate the responsibility of the case handlers involved. He said that after July 20, 2022, personnel from the Xinle City Public Security Bureau and the Yuhua Branch of the Shijiazhuang City Public Security Bureau repeatedly worked on him, persuading him to plead guilty and admit that Bao Qinrui died a normal death.
It can be seen from the cover of a video taken by the police officers on that day that Bao Qinrui’s body had large areas of bruises and swelling. Several relatives at the funeral home that day said that the scalp, hands and feet, and the roots of the thighs of the body all had obvious scars, and there was blood in the mouth, nose, and ears.
Regarding Bao Qinrui’s death, Bao Jiye was told that the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate had intervened in the investigation on the day of the incident.
The “Regulations of the People’s Procuratorate on Supervising the Implementation of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location” mentions that the People’s Procuratorate can take measures such as reviewing relevant legal documents and materials such as the meeting, communication, and outing of the person under residential surveillance, the health check records, etc.; talking with the person under residential surveillance, the executing personnel, the case handlers, or other relevant personnel, and investigating and understanding relevant situations, etc., to supervise the implementation of residential surveillance at a designated location, including whether the legitimate rights of the person under residential surveillance are guaranteed; whether there are illegal acts such as interrogation and physical abuse of the person under residential surveillance in the designated residence.
After Bao Qinrui’s death, the other eight people could eat on time, and they were no longer beaten, and the security guards also gave them medicine to treat their injuries. However, before leaving the Xinle Hotel, no one was asked whether they had been subjected to torture.
Bao Xiaolong recalled that on September 28 last year, after completing the bail procedures, they were sent to the Xinle City Procuratorate to cooperate with the investigation. The police officers had instructed them that when they arrived at the Xinle City Procuratorate and were asked about the situation of residential surveillance, they should say “eat well, sleep well, and have not been subjected to torture.” Several people who were released on bail on the same day also confirmed Bao Xiaolong’s statement to the reporter and said that for the above reasons, they denied that they had been subjected to torture in the procuratorate.
After the bail was lifted in June this year, Bao Jiye and his family repeatedly reported the matter of torture to the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate and the Hebei Provincial Procuratorate, hoping to investigate the case handlers involved.
The above regulations also mention that if a person under residential surveillance dies during residential surveillance at a designated location, it shall be handled with reference to the provisions of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on the procuratorial procedures for the death of a person under supervision in a detention place. The latter stipulates that the People’s Procuratorate in charge of the review and investigation tasks shall provide the necessary conditions for the appraiser to conduct the appraisal, introduce the situation to the appraiser, clearly put forward the problems to be solved by the appraisal, and provide the basic information of the deceased person under supervision, the admission (to the place) physical examination situation and medical records and other original materials; and other relevant materials.
The family believes that the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate arranged for an autopsy eight months after the incident, missing the best opportunity to find out the cause of death, and did not provide the relevant materials of Bao Qinrui during the designated residence to the appraisal agency, etc. The appraisal agency made an appraisal opinion without knowing the specific background, which may lack objectivity, so they applied for a second autopsy.
Xue Yongkui, a lawyer from Beijing Zhoutai Law Firm, said that the “Criminal Procedure Law” stipulates that the place of residential surveillance should have normal living and rest conditions; be conducive to supervision and management; and be able to ensure the safety of case handling. If there is a situation of torture, it is obviously in violation of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. Moreover, Bao Qinrui and others have residences in Yuhua District and Gaoyi County, and residential surveillance should be implemented at their residences first.
In October this year, the staff of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate questioned Bao Jiye and the other eight people about the situation during the designated residence and assessed the injuries of Bao Jitao. The reporter learned that the result of the injury assessment was a minor injury of level two. On November 3, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate asked Bao Jitao to identify the personnel involved in the torture.
At present, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate has agreed that the family can designate a third-party agency to conduct a second autopsy.
(At the request of the interviewees, Sun Yong in the text is a pseudonym)
（应采访对象要求，文中孙勇为化名）
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