This is a case of police assault that has sparked controversy.
On July 20, 2021, when the Luanzhou Municipal Government of Hebei Province was expropriating the contracted land of Han Guo, a villager of Huangzhuang Village, Leizhuang Town, the Special Police Brigade of the Municipal Public Security Bureau was assigned by the superior to assist the Leizhuang Town Government in forcibly entering the site. During the process, police officers and Han Guo’s family had a physical conflict, and multiple people on both sides were injured to varying degrees.
After the incident, the Leizhuang Town government’s forced entry was determined by the court to be an act of exceeding its authority and was ruled illegal; Han Guo and his wife and mother were criminally detained by the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of assaulting the police; Han Guo’s family accused the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau of illegally participating in land expropriation and demolition, and the deputy director was suspected of committing a crime.
At the end of 2021, the Luanzhou Procuratorate decided not to prosecute Han Guo and his mother. On January 19, 2023, Han Guo’s wife, Qu Xiaoling, had her compulsory measures changed by the court to residential surveillance.
On May 9, 2023, the case of Qu Xiaoling being charged with assaulting the police was heard in the Qianxi County Court. As the trial progressed, the details of the case were made public.
A farmer’s wife injured a police officer with a kitchen knife
Qu Xiaoling, who has an elementary school education, has lived in the village for many years, helping her husband Han Guo manage a large forest on the contracted land. Planting trees and selling saplings are the only source of income for this farmer couple.
In 2001, Han Guo contracted a wasteland from the Huangzhuang Village Committee of Leizhuang Town, with a contract period of 50 years. The contract agreement stipulated that the wasteland could be used at will. Han Guo said that when the contract was signed, the land was a pit. By the end of 2017, he had gradually filled the pit, built a simple house, planted a large number of poplar trees, and stored a lot of wood.
Before the contract period expired, Han Guo’s family received a notice of land expropriation.
On October 29, 2020, the Luanzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau and the Leizhuang Town Government came to tell him that they wanted to expropriate the land he had contracted, and that they would give him some compensation after measurement. Han Guo cooperated with the measurement and provided the original pictures of the contracted land, hoping to measure the amount of earthwork used to fill the deep pit, so as to have a basis for negotiating compensation. However, the government did not include the earthwork for filling the pit in the compensation scope, nor did it provide him with a measurement report. He therefore disagreed to continue negotiating compensation.
After that, in 2021, Han Guo’s family and the local government negotiated several times without success regarding the land expropriation.
The video materials provided by Han Guo show that from March to July 2021, Huangzhuang Village no longer collected Han Guo’s contracted fees as agreed in the contract, and the village committee decided to terminate the contract with Han Guo through an internal meeting. Village officials repeatedly asked Han Guo what compensation he wanted, and Han Guo refused to discuss compensation, citing “no earthwork measurement report as a basis”, and refused to move out.
During this period, the Leizhuang Town government signed a land expropriation compensation agreement with the Huangzhuang Village Committee on the grounds that “the land to be expropriated is village collective land, and the expropriation counterpart is the village committee”, and the compensation was immediately paid to the village. The compensation negotiation between the village committee and Han Guo has never been finalized.
On July 19, 2021, Ji Xianggang, a member of the Party Committee of Leizhuang Town, and Mao Changqing, the Party Secretary of Huangzhuang Village, came to Han Guo’s home and informed him that the earthwork on the land to be expropriated would not be compensated, and that the wood and trees stored on the ground could be compensated, with a compensation amount of 300,000 yuan. If he disagreed, they would forcibly enter the site early the next day.
Han Guo’s family said that on July 20, 2021, they came to the contracted land early in the morning to prevent the town government from forcibly entering the site. At 4 a.m. that day, Han Guo put on the bulletproof vest he had prepared in advance, put on a helmet, and drove a forklift to “do odd jobs” on his contracted land; around 5 a.m., Qu Xiaoling also came to the contracted land to bring breakfast to her husband; around 6 a.m., Han Guo’s sister and mother, Qi Yuzhi, also arrived at the scene.
The case materials show that at 6 a.m. on July 20, the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau’s Special Police Brigade, led by Captain Feng Guozhong, converged with the police and auxiliary police officers of the Leizhuang Town Police Station led by the director Pang Yinsheng. Around 6:30 a.m., a group of 70 people from the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau went to Han Guo’s contracted land. Around 7 a.m., a conflict broke out between the two sides, during which Han Guo’s wife took out a kitchen knife and slashed wildly.
After a moment of chaos at the scene, several police officers were injured, and the injuries of two police officers were later identified as minor injuries.
On the same day, Han Guo, Qu Xiaoling, and Han Guo’s mother, Qi Yuzhi, were criminally detained by the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau on suspicion of assaulting the police. The next day, Qu Xiaoling was sent to the hospital due to physical discomfort, and the examination report showed that she had two broken ribs.
On August 3, 2021, Han Guo and Qu Xiaoling were approved for arrest by the Luanzhou Municipal Procuratorate, and Qi Yuzhi was released on bail pending trial.
Han Guo’s wife, Qu Xiaoling, is currently under residential surveillance
The police took the initiative to act at the scene of the “negotiation” for clearing the site
Han Guo said that since he learned about the land expropriation news in 2020, he has used a video camera to record every negotiation process with the Leizhuang Town Government and the Huangzhuang Village Committee, and clearly told the other party that it was to leave evidence. He also installed eight sets of monitoring equipment around the contracted land.
On July 20, 2021, before the conflict occurred, Han Guo entrusted his relatives to take a video camera to the scene to film. Han Guo provided more than 100G of more than 100 audio-visual materials, recording the complete process of the conflict.
One video shows that at 7 a.m., outside the perimeter of Han Guo’s contracted land, seven police cars were parked, and a large number of special police officers were standing on the side of the road. From 7:01 to 7:06, five men stood a little distance from the forklift and talked to Han Guo on the forklift. The content of the conversation was roughly to ask Han Guo to show the contract documents for the contracted land, and Han Guo said, “It’s not in my hands, I can get it tomorrow…” The five men approached the forklift while talking. Qi Yuzhi, who was using a crutch, and her daughter, who was filming with a video camera, also approached the forklift.
According to the case materials, three of the five men were staff members of the Leizhuang Town Government, and the other two were police officers, namely Feng Guozhong, the captain of the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau’s Special Police Brigade, and Yang Aimin, the deputy captain.
At 7:06:45, Yang Aimin suddenly approached the forklift, reached out his hand, and grabbed Han Guo’s left leg and pulled him down. Han Guo struggled and fell into the driver’s seat of the forklift. Then, Qi Yuzhi rushed forward and hit Yang Aimin with a crutch, and was immediately pulled away by the people from the town government. The special police officers standing outside the yard quickly jumped over the wooden fence and rushed towards the forklift.
Almost at the same time, Qu Xiaoling, on the other side of the forklift, saw the special police rushing in and turned to the forklift. Han Guo had already been surrounded by the special police and pulled off the forklift. Qu Xiaoling saw this and took out a kitchen knife from her bag and slashed at the police. “Seeing a group of police officers beating Han Guo, I got angry,” Qu Xiaoling believed that she was acting in self-defense. By 7:08, Han Guo, Han Guo’s sister, Qu Xiaoling, and Qi Yuzhi were successively controlled by the special police.
On the day of the incident, the Leizhuang Town government issued a written statement confirming that the Leizhuang Town government took the lead in implementing the forced entry. The statement clearly stated: The town government and public security personnel entered the site to do ideological work for Han Guo and his family.
Feng Guozhong and Yang Aimin each made a written self-report, both claiming that they were on the scene to assist the Leizhuang Town government in clearing the illegally occupied land. But in the formal interrogation records nine days later, they changed their words and claimed that they were on the scene to maintain order.
The case materials show that Li Wei, another staff member of the Special Police Brigade, said that he was on the scene to assist the Leizhuang Town government in clearing the illegally occupied land. Other auxiliary police officers of the Special Police Brigade and the Leizhuang Police Station all claimed that they were on the scene to perform their duties. There is no interrogation record of Pang Yinsheng, the director of the Leizhuang Police Station, in the case.
The indictment of the public prosecution agency accusing Qu Xiaoling of assaulting the police shows that the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau’s Special Police Brigade and the Leizhuang Police Station were on the scene to maintain order at the instruction of their superiors.
However, Qu Xiaoling’s defense attorney said that the video content of the incident scene could prove that before the police took action, the two sides at the scene were only verbally negotiating, and the conflict only occurred between the police and the parties after the police took action, which shows that the police were not maintaining order.
The defense attorney also said that since 2010, the State Council, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and the Ministry of Public Security have issued documents, explicitly prohibiting public security police officers from participating in land expropriation and demolition activities. The documents clearly stipulate that those who arbitrarily use police force to participate in forced land expropriation and demolition and cause serious consequences shall be held seriously accountable for the relevant party and government leaders.
Feng Guozhong and Yang Aimin both claimed in their self-reports that they were instructed by Wang Xiaoguo, the deputy director of the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, to enter the site to do work for the parties.
Regarding the act of taking action, the Leizhuang Town government mentioned in a statement that on the day of the incident, Han Guo’s family of three obstructed the smooth implementation of the key projects of the Luanzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, and that “Han Guo was emotional and climbed into the forklift to start the forklift, and only took action to prevent accidents.” The Leizhuang Town government believes that Han Guo and others used violent means to attack the police who were performing their duties in accordance with the law, causing injuries, which has violated the criminal law.
On May 9, 2023, the case of Qu Xiaoling’s alleged assault on the police was heard in the Qianxi County Court of Tangshan City. At the trial, Qu Xiaoling submitted a petition in court, accusing Wang Xiaoguo of openly violating the ban of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Public Security, illegally using police force to participate in violent land expropriation, and of abusing his power.
The collegiate bench received the petition materials and did not make any statement.
The wasteland rented by Han Guo has now been built into the G205 Comprehensive Service Area, but Han Guo has not yet received the land expropriation compensation, and the assault on the police case involving his wife has not yet been concluded
Key projects without provincial land occupation approval procedures
According to the Luanzhou Municipal People’s Government’s land expropriation initiation announcement and other documents, the land contracted by Han Guo was expropriated this time, and the land user was the Luanzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau, which was used to build the Luanzhou Municipal key project “G205 Comprehensive Service Area”, and was assisted by the Luanzhou Land and Resources Department and the village where it was located to assist in on-site demarcation and surveying.
The reporter learned that the surveying documents did not clearly specify the project of measuring earthwork. However, Han Guo felt that the earthwork issue was a special situation mentioned in the documents and should be compensated, so he found a third-party organization to measure the amount of earthwork used to fill the wasteland. The data given by the measurement agency was 346,800 cubic meters. Han Guo’s administrative case agent believes that this part of the loss can be compensated as a loss of production and operation. However, Han Guo’s compensation claim has not been recognized by the expropriation party.
After being accused of assaulting the police, Han Guo began to learn about the relevant laws on land management.
According to the current relevant laws such as the “Land Administration Law” and the “Implementation Regulations of the Land Administration Law”, the steps for the expropriation of rural collective land are subdivided into 13 steps, namely: issuing a preliminary announcement of land expropriation, conducting a land status survey, conducting a social stability risk assessment, drafting a land compensation and resettlement plan, announcing the land compensation and resettlement plan, organizing a hearing, handling land compensation registration, signing a land compensation and resettlement agreement, applying for land expropriation approval, issuing a land expropriation announcement, making a land compensation and resettlement decision, ordering the land to be handed over, and applying to the court for compulsory execution.
Han Guo said that from the beginning to the end, no court staff had issued him a notice of compulsory execution. There were no court staff present when the government personnel entered the site to clear the site. He believed that the government’s forced entry had violated the land expropriation process. The reporter from Beiqing Deep also learned from the trial of the assault on the police case that there were no relevant materials in the case materials for the government to apply to the court for compulsory execution.
On December 30, 2021, the Luanzhou Procuratorate decided not to prosecute Han Guo. After Han Guo was released, the houses and monitoring probes on the land he contracted disappeared. He entrusted a lawyer to file an administrative lawsuit and sued the Leizhuang Town government in court, and submitted a large number of audio-visual evidence and written proof documents, requesting to confirm that the Leizhuang Town government’s forced entry to clear the site was illegal.
The Luanzhou Court and the Tangshan Intermediate Court both supported Han Guo’s request, confirming that the Leizhuang Town government exceeded its authority to forcibly enter the site, and that the entry behavior was illegal.
Qu Xiaoling’s defense attorney said that the necessary condition for constituting the crime of assaulting the police is that “the police officer being assaulted is performing his duties in accordance with the law.” However, the court confirmed that the Leizhuang Town government’s administrative behavior was illegal, which means that “the police cooperated with the government’s illegal administrative behavior”, and the police’s behavior does not fall within the scope of performing duties in accordance with the law. Therefore, Qu Xiaoling’s act of slashing the police with a knife does not constitute the crime of assaulting the police.
In addition, according to Article 46 of the “Land Administration Law”, the expropriation of rural collective land shall be approved by the people’s government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government. Regarding the provincial government’s reply document on the expropriation of the collective land of Huangzhuang Village for the “G205 Comprehensive Service Area”, the Leizhuang Town government did not produce it when Han Guo filed an administrative lawsuit; the Luanzhou Municipal Government Information Disclosure Coordination Group Office showed “not aware” in a written document; after the Qianxi County Court issued a request to the Qianxi County Procuratorate to obtain the document, it clearly stated to Han Guo that “there is no”; as of the end of the trial of the assault on the police case on May 9, this reply document had not arrived.
Qu Xiaoling’s defense attorney believes that, according to the rules of trial, the court should regard it as “not having this document.” This means that all administrative actions of Luanzhou City for the land expropriation of this project are illegal, and the police’s act of subduing Han Guo is an unlawful infringement, and Qu Xiaoling’s act of injuring the police should be determined as self-defense.
At the trial, Qu Xiaoling submitted a petition in court, based on the fact that the land expropriation for the “G205 Comprehensive Service Area”, a key project of the Luanzhou Municipal Government, was not approved by the Hebei Provincial Government, accusing the relevant party and government leaders of Luanzhou City of abusing their power.
Han Guo is reading the case materials at home
The lawsuit against Luanzhou Public Security has been filed
At present, the Luanzhou Municipal key project “G205 Comprehensive Service Area” has been initially completed. In late March 2023, the reporter from Beiqing Deep saw in the service area that people were working upstairs during the day, and large trucks were entering and leaving the courtyard at night, and small sheds in the courtyard were being built.
Han Guo claimed that he had never opposed the government’s land expropriation in accordance with the law, and it can also be heard in the audio-visual materials that he has repeatedly said “if compensated in accordance with the law, I support it.” However, as of the time of publication, no one from the government has come to him to discuss the compensation for the surface attachments, and he plans to sue the government and demand compensation.
Ge Jianxue, the director of the Leizhuang Town Finance Office, told the police that (as of the time of the conflict) some land expropriation compensation and some compensation for the surface attachments of the farmers had been disbursed, but not including Han Guo’s, because Han Guo had not signed a compensation agreement with the village committee.
Since January 2022, Han Guo has reflected the issues of Wang Xiaoguo, the deputy director of the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, being suspected of abusing his power, and the G205 Comprehensive Service Area being suspected of illegally occupying land to multiple departments, but has not received any reply.
The materials obtained by the Deep reporter show that the case of Qu Xiaoling’s alleged assault on the police was originally brought by the Luanzhou Municipal Procuratorate to the Luanzhou Municipal Court. The defense attorney, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, applied to the Luanzhou Municipal Court to request that Wang Xiaoguo’s criminal clues be transferred to the Supervision Commission. After the case was designated to be tried by the Qianxi County Court, the defense attorney submitted the same application again.
On May 9, 2023, at the trial of the case of Qu Xiaoling being charged with assaulting the police, her defense attorney stated in court that the case materials proved that Wang Xiaoguo was suspected of abusing his power. According to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, he submitted written materials to the court and again requested the collegiate bench to transfer the clues to the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission. The collegiate bench received the materials and did not make any statement in court. At noon on May 9, the trial of the case ended without a verdict being announced in court.
So far, more than two years have passed since the land expropriation compensation dispute occurred. Qu Xiaoling is 54 years old this year and is currently under residential surveillance. She suffered from nasal cell lymphoma in 2009 and is now in the middle and late stages, requiring long-term medication and conditioning. The illness has caused her mouth to be abnormal and unable to speak normally. At present, in addition to managing the saplings on other contracted land, Han Guo and his wife have basically focused their energy on the case.
At present, Han Guo and his wife have filed an administrative lawsuit and sued the Luanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau in court, requesting to confirm that the police’s actions on the scene were illegal. The reporter from Beiqing Deep learned that the lawsuit has been filed by the Luanzhou Municipal Court.
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