Today, let’s talk about a case that is more exciting than a TV drama, more bizarre than a novel, but is a true story.
This case brings together all the elements of a blockbuster: high-ranking officials in Xinjiang, a young couple in Beijing, full payment for a house, extortion, invasion of privacy, fleeing overseas, and the explosive举报信 (reporting letter) that ignited it all.
This is the recent sensational case of “Zhao Ruisheng and Liu Yuan Extortion Case”.
On June 29, 2026, the verdict was delivered. The Shunyi District Court of Beijing, in its first instance, ruled: Defendant Zhao Ruisheng, guilty of extortion and invasion of citizens’ personal information, was sentenced to six years and ten months in prison, with combined penalties.
His girlfriend, Liu Yuan, had already fled overseas before the incident and has not yet been apprehended. As for the ‘big tiger’ who was extorted – Hu Guoqiang, former chairman of Xinjiang Energy Group – he was officially announced to have fallen from power in January 2024.
While it seems settled, the subtle clues behind it are the truly intriguing abyss of human nature.
01
The male protagonist of the story is Zhao Ruisheng, born in the 1990s, a computer engineer working for an internet company in Beijing. His girlfriend is Liu Yuan, who runs a milk tea shop and a guesthouse business. She has tens of millions in savings and owns a 420-square-meter villa in the Youshan Meidi villa area in Beijing.
In January 2021, Liu Yuan listed this villa for sale online. Soon, a woman in a Chanel suit and an Hermes bag came to her, claiming to be Zhang Shuang. She was interested in the house and intended to pay in full for her child’s schooling.
The two parties agreed on a price of 34.8 million yuan, all cash.
Three days later, it was time for the handover. Zhao Ruisheng accompanied Liu Yuan to the bank, and what happened next stunned them both.
Zhang Shuang and her driver pulled out eight black suitcases, larger than carry-on luggage, from the car trunk. Upon opening them, they found neatly stacked one-hundred-yuan bills.
Zhang Shuang said that her family owned mines in Xinjiang and that this was mine wages and dividends. She didn’t want to keep too much money on the books and hoped to deposit it directly into Liu Yuan’s account.
Not only that, Zhang Shuang also made an offer: in addition to the 34.8 million yuan for the house, as long as Liu Yuan agreed to use her account to deposit this cash, she would pay an additional 4 million yuan to buy all the furniture, appliances, and soft furnishings in the villa.
Liu Yuan had a nagging feeling that the money’s origin might be questionable. But then she thought, helping someone deposit money and getting 4 million yuan for free – why not take advantage of it?
So, the two went to several banks and managed to deposit 24.8 million yuan in cash and 10 million yuan via transfer, totaling 34.8 million yuan, into Liu Yuan’s account.
The money was paid, and the house was transferred. But the trouble had just begun.
Because there were still tenants in the villa, the parties agreed to hand over the property after the lease expired. In May 2021, the tenant called to say that a woman claiming to be the landlord, accompanied by several men who looked like ‘gangsters,’ had forcibly entered the house to measure it, scaring the tenant into calling the police.
This incident greatly angered Liu Yuan. The tenant moved out early, and Liu Yuan demanded compensation from Zhang Shuang for the rental loss and the 4 million yuan for the furniture. Zhang Shuang insisted that the furniture fee was already included in the 34.8 million yuan and refused to pay a penny.
The conflict completely erupted. Liu Yuan said she would sue, and Zhang Shuang sneered, “Do you know who my big brother is? My big brother is Secretary Hu.”
Liu Yuan investigated and discovered that this ‘Secretary Hu’ was none other than Hu Guoqiang, the Party Secretary and Chairman of Xinjiang Energy Group. And Zhang Shuang was Hu Guoqiang’s girlfriend (they later got married).
02
Most people would back down upon hearing the words ‘Secretary Hu.’ But Liu Yuan and Zhao Ruisheng were not deterred. Not only did they not back down, but they decided to confront him head-on.
In August 2021, Liu Yuan hired ‘private investigators’ and began to track and secretly photograph Hu Guoqiang and Zhang Shuang.
These ‘private investigators,’ paid for their services, used extremely unconventional methods. They stuck to Hu Guoqiang and Zhang Shuang like glue, secretly installing GPS trackers on their vehicles, meticulously documenting their daily movements, who they met, and their travel routes. They even installed hidden cameras directly outside Hu Guoqiang’s home.
Soon, the private investigators delivered their ‘results.’ Following the leads, Liu Yuan and Zhao Ruisheng finally pieced together the truth: the ‘Secretary Hu’ behind Zhang Shuang was indeed Hu Guoqiang, the Party Secretary and Chairman of Xinjiang Energy Group.
They also obtained Zhang Shuang’s bank statements and the identity information of people closely associated with Hu Guoqiang through the private investigators.
When these ‘black materials,’ bought with real money, were laid out before them, Liu Yuan and Zhao Ruisheng’s mindset underwent a complete transformation.
Initially, they just wanted to recover their money through civil litigation. But looking at the solid clues of corruption in their hands, and the official who bought a house with eight suitcases of cash, they realized this was no longer a simple business dispute.
Thus, a grand ‘reporting campaign’ began. Starting in January 2022, Liu Yuan and Zhao Ruisheng, armed with photos secretly taken by private investigators and the financial records they had obtained, began to relentlessly report Hu Guoqiang to the Xinjiang Disciplinary Inspection Commission, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission, and the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, using their real names.
Meanwhile, Hu Guoqiang also panicked. In April 2022, Hu Guoqiang’s driver met with Liu Yuan and directly offered 3 million yuan in cash, with the condition that she stop the reporting.
Liu Yuan refused. She said, “I don’t want the money; let’s meet in court.”
But Hu Guoqiang clearly did not want to go through legal channels. In July 2023, the driver, Sun Moumou, threatened Zhao Ruisheng over the phone: “You must withdraw the lawsuit, or the two lawyers won’t live for three months.”
Liu Yuan got scared and was forced to withdraw the lawsuit. But the reporting did not stop.
In October 2023, Liu Yuan fled overseas. A month later, Zhao Ruisheng was criminally detained by the Beijing police.
In December 2025, Zhao Ruisheng stood in the defendant’s dock. The prosecution accused him of two crimes: extortion and invasion of citizens’ personal information.
The prosecution’s logic was: Zhao Ruisheng and Liu Yuan hired people to track and secretly photograph, obtained Hu Guoqiang’s personal information, and then used the threat of reporting to demand 7.794 million yuan in civil litigation. Although they did not receive the money, it constituted attempted extortion.
Zhao Ruisheng’s defense lawyer argued: This 7.794 million yuan was actually the amount Liu Yuan claimed in civil litigation (including unpaid furniture fees, breach of contract damages, compensation for emotional distress, etc.). The amount claimed by a citizen suing in court became the ‘criminal amount’ in the judicial authorities’ criminal charges.
The defense lawyer retorted: Citizens reporting corrupt officials to disciplinary inspection agencies is a right granted by the constitution. How did it become extortion? If Hu Guoqiang was not corrupt, it would be false accusation; now that Hu Guoqiang has fallen from power, it proves the report was true. Is a creditor demanding compensation from a corrupt official who owes them money, and simultaneously promoting anti-corruption, a crime or a contribution?
As for the invasion of citizens’ personal information, the defense lawyer stated that the information was collected for anti-corruption purposes, never publicly disclosed or leaked, and caused no losses, so it should not be treated as a crime.
On the other hand, Hu Guoqiang did not escape. In January 2024, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission announced that Hu Guoqiang was under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. The announcement indicated that he had illegally accepted gifts and received travel arrangements, with the amount involved potentially exceeding 100 million yuan.
03
Looking back at this case, you will find a very interesting phenomenon: Zhao Ruisheng and Liu Yuan’s methods indeed skirted the edge of the law.
Hiring private investigators, tracking and secretly photographing, and obtaining personal information are inherently illegal actions. However, the content of their reports was genuine corruption.
This leads to a soul-searching question: When someone uses illegal means to expose a greater illegal fact, how should we judge?
Should we only look at the illegality of the means, or also consider the legitimacy of the outcome?
Zhao Ruisheng said something in court: “We did it to save face and also for self-preservation.”
This sentence fully expresses the helplessness and struggle of ordinary people facing power. They are not born warriors; they were simply pushed to the wall and had to pick up the weapon of reporting to fight against someone they could not afford to offend.
Now, Hu Guoqiang has fallen from power, and the relevant investigation has not yet concluded. Zhao Ruisheng has been sentenced to six years and ten months in prison.
This case leaves a question worthy of deep reflection for everyone:
When justice can only be achieved through ‘extraordinary means,’ should we reflect on those ‘extraordinary means,’ or the environment that forces people to use them?
I even wonder if Zhao Ruisheng and Liu Yuan’s actions posed an intolerable threat to corrupt officials, and therefore they absolutely had to be convicted, otherwise, the corrupt officials would not be able to sleep at night?
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