Shanghai Petitioner Says Plainclothes Men Blocked Complaint at Prosecutors Office

Petitioners are escorted to a bus by security personnel before being driven away in Beijing on Aug. 6, 2018. Photo by Greg Baker/AFP/Getty ImagesA woman in Shanghai, China, attempting to file a complaint with the city’s top prosecutorial authority said she was blocked by unidentified security personnel and prevented from submitting her materials, raising questions about access to official grievance channels.Wu Huiqun, a resident in the city, told The Epoch Times that several men dressed in black clothing and without identification badges attempted to seize her complaint registration form when she visited the petition office of the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate on March 5.In China, there is an administrative petitioning system for hearing public complaints and grievances. In practice, it is widely reported by human rights groups that the regime routinely dismisses petitioners and often persecutes those who are dissatisfied with the regime’s authoritarian rule.Petition RejectedWu said she went into the office to file a complaint regarding what she described as a wrongful legal case against her.After passing through security, she was stopped by several unidentified men.“Soon, several men in black came over and behaved aggressively,” Wu said. “I asked them for their identification numbers, but none responded.”Wu said that when she told them she planned to photograph them and file a complaint, the men attempted to grab her phone. When she asked for her complaint registration form, she was forced to leave the office.Wu said she later went to the main building of the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate on that same day to lodge a complaint about the incident.However, she was turned away and told to return to the petition office the next morning. Soon after Wu left, she was approached by a man who told her the appointment had been moved to the afternoon the following day.Nevertheless, when Wu arrived at the office at the scheduled time the next afternoon, she said security personnel closed the door and refused to allow her to enter.Dispute With Local AuthoritiesWu said her attempt to file the complaint stemmed from a long-running dispute with local government authorities that began nearly three decades ago.As a former employee of the Shanghai municipal government, Wu said she had reported major losses of state assets within a state-owned enterprise and later filed lawsuits against the government and the local state-owned assets regulator.She said the actions led to retaliation, including the loss of her job and the denial of social security benefits.Wu said she has spent nearly 28 years petitioning authorities and reporting alleged misconduct by local officials. She was detained multiple times and has been unable to access social security or medical insurance during that time.Now approaching 59, Wu said she has also been unable to receive retirement benefits.Wu said her visit to the Shanghai procuratorate was intended to submit court judgments and evidence to a group established by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate in 2024 to review alleged wrongful judgments.However, the incidents over the two days left her feeling frustrated.“The events of these two days make people feel helpless,” Wu said. “Even trying to file a complaint through normal channels is difficult.”She added that she believes corruption and misconduct within the judicial and administrative systems have prevented her case from being addressed.Li Xi contributed to this report.