Paper ingots for the dead, slave labor for the living — Summary of partial leads concerning abuse of detainees at Weicheng District Detention Center in Xianyang: folding paper ingots, lead poisoning, task-based corporal punishment, and a cover-up of deaths

Victim Wang Yingqiang’s son, Wang Xiaogang, was frightened into developing a mental illness after someone deliberately let the guard dog at his workplace bite him while he was working at China Energy Engineering Group Northwest Electric Power Construction Third Company in 2007. Wang Yingqiang has petitioned for 16 years without receiving lawful resolution. Instead, the Weicheng subdistrict office and the central state-owned enterprise employed Ma Yongkui to illegally monitor and persecute Wang Yingqiang’s family for years, using every possible means to block and intercept their petitions. Whenever Wang Yingqiang or his family went out to petition, Ma Yongkui would call the leaders to report their movements and follow and surveil them. Whenever Wang Yingqiang returned from petitioning, Ma Yongkui would deliberately provoke trouble, shouting abuse and threats and causing disturbances near the courtyard of Wang Yingqiang’s home. The surveillance equipment at the scene of the incident was pointed directly at Wang Yingqiang’s front door and had monitored his family for a long time; it happened to record the entire incident.

On September 27, 2022, victim Ma Yongkui repeatedly went without cause to the entrance of victim Wang Yingqiang’s home carrying a knife, shouting abuse and causing trouble. However, the officers from the Jinxu Road police station who responded that day did not take any measures against or criticize and educate Ma Yongkui, the attacker. They did not even confiscate the 30-centimeter-long sharp knife Ma Yongkui had used in the attack before leaving. At around 8 a.m. on September 28, Ma Yongkui once again went into the courtyard of Wang Yingqiang and Wang Xiaogang’s home carrying a 30-centimeter-long sharp knife to cause trouble, and was injured by Wang Xiaogang, who has a mental illness, in legitimate self-defense. Ma Yongkui’s son, defendant Ma Jianjun, then drove an off-road vehicle (license plate Shaanxi A3E79D) into Wang Yingqiang’s courtyard and rammed Wang Yingqiang. It first violently struck his father, Ma Yongkui, who was already sitting on the ground. As a result, victim Ma Yongkui was thrown heavily against an iron post, while the vehicle pushed against his lower body, causing his body to twist violently, and then ran directly over him. After getting out of the vehicle and discovering that he had run over his own father, defendant Ma Jianjun immediately reversed and ran over victim Ma Yongkui a second time, causing Ma Yongkui to go into shock at the scene (Ma Yongkui later died after emergency treatment failed. His medical records state that Ma Yongkui suffered 16 rib fractures on both sides of the chest, a sternum fracture, multiple pelvic fractures, a left ilium fracture, and multiple contusions and hemorrhages of abdominal organs, among other injuries). Ma Jianjun then rammed Wang Yingqiang, who was sitting on a stone block in his own courtyard, smashing the stone table and stone stools. Wang Yingqiang was struck in the lower body, his head and upper body were slammed into the hood, and he was then thrown backward. After defendant Ma Jianjun realized that he had caused his father to go into shock by ramming and running him over, he drove the vehicle backward and again drove into Wang Yingqiang’s courtyard, intending to attack him, but was injured by Wang Xiaogang in legitimate self-defense.

After the incident, the Xixian New Area Public Security Sub-Bureau immediately arrested Wang Xiaogang, a person with a mental illness who had acted in legitimate self-defense in his own courtyard. However, it used every possible means to shield and protect Ma Jianjun, the real killer who drove an off-road vehicle into Wang Yingqiang’s courtyard, ran over Ma Yongkui to death, and injured Wang Yingqiang, and did not arrest him. To cover up his dereliction of duty and failure to perform his responsibilities on September 27, 2022, Zhang Shuli, director of the Jinxu Road police station, illegally used AI technology to delete and edit surveillance video of Ma Yongkui carrying a 30-centimeter-long sharp knife to attack Wang Yingqiang at his home on September 27, 2022. If the Jinxu Road police station had lawfully confiscated his controlled knife and taken compulsory measures against him when it responded on September 27, 2022, the tragedy on September 28, 2022, would never have happened. After the incident, in order to shield Ma Jianjun, the real killer, Zhang Shuli and others colluded with Liang Jin, Li Ge and other officers handling the case in the Xixian New Area, finding more than a dozen friends and fellow villagers of Ma Yongkui’s family in the community where the incident occurred to give false testimony and frame Wang Yingqiang and his son Wang Xiaogang.

Such a simple September 28 intentional-injury case was unlawfully divided by Wang Lin, deputy chief of the criminal investigation unit of the Xixian New Area Public Security Sub-Bureau of the Xi’an Municipal Public Security Bureau, and officers Li Ge, Liang Jin and others into the Wang Xiaogang intentional-injury case and the Ma Jianjun intentional-injury case, abusing their authority for personal interests and shielding Ma Jianjun, the real killer. It was not until 77 days after the September 28 incident that Liang Jin and others took compulsory measures against Ma Jianjun. They claimed that before then they had assigned police officers to look after and treat Ma Jianjun, but his injury assessment found only minor injuries, which did not require such a long hospitalization. Liang Jin and others even defied common sense by unlawfully determining that Ma Jianjun’s voluntary surrender after being discharged from hospital constituted surrender.

On September 29, 2022, Wang Xiaogang was placed under residential surveillance at a designated location by the Xixian New Area Branch of the Xi’an Municipal Public Security Bureau (the Xixian Branch) on suspicion of intentional injury. On October 31, 2022, the Xixian Branch changed the compulsory measure to criminal detention, and he was held at the Weicheng District Detention Center. His admission medical examination form showed that Wang Xiaogang was in good health. During his detention, the Weicheng District Detention Center repeatedly created obstacles and prevented Wang Xiaogang’s lawyer, Shao Chenyang, from meeting with him. On July 19, 2024, he was sent to hospital for massive gastrointestinal bleeding and died on July 23. An autopsy report by the Judicial Forensic Examination Center of Xi’an Jiaotong University confirmed that the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock caused by rupture of a gastrointestinal-wall leiomyosarcoma, but there were systematic violations and dereliction of duty in the detention and medical processes. After Wang Xiaogang’s unnatural death at the Weicheng District Detention Center, Gui Cun she, director of the Xianyang Weicheng District Public Security Bureau, and others did not handle the matter lawfully at the first opportunity. Instead, they submitted false materials everywhere to conceal the truth of Wang Xiaogang’s death. Wang Chao, an officer of the Weicheng District Public Security Bureau, told Wang Xiaogang’s sister, Wang Xiaoqin, that the Ministry of Public Security had sent the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department to the Weicheng District Detention Center to learn about the situation, and that the matter ended after they read the so-called internal investigation report of the Weicheng District Public Security Bureau. Wang Chao said that if Wang Xiaogang’s family did not seek to hold the detention center legally responsible, they would pay only 70,000 yuan as compensation for Wang Xiaogang’s life, adding that the three detainees who had previously died at the Weicheng District Detention Center had each been compensated 70,000 yuan and that each case had been handled within a week.

After the incident, Wang Yingqiang, the father of victim Wang Xiaogang, who was crippled and confined to bed after the killer Ma Jianjun drove to his home and attacked him, spent his days in tears and was unable to accept the cruel reality of a white-haired parent burying a child. Wang Xiaoqin, Wang Xiaogang’s sister, repeatedly mailed reports of wrongdoing to Wang Xiaohong, the minister of the Ministry of Public Security, and Dai Binbin, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department, but they disappeared without a response. More than two years have passed since the incident, and no one from the Ministry of Public Security or the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department has ever proactively contacted the victim’s family to learn about or communicate regarding the case. Instead, wherever the victim’s family reported the matter, Gui Cun she and others would use every possible means to cover it up there. As a result, the deceased Wang Xiaogang has still not been able to rest in peace, while his family has endured suppression and persecution.

Ever since my brother Wang Xiaogang was abused to death, staff at the Weicheng District Detention Center have falsely told all detainees that Wang Xiaogang had been released on bail pending trial and had left the detention center. Warden Zhang Minghui even prepared scripts in advance for the guards involved in the case, prison doctors, and cell bosses and bullies, fabricating information and tightly suppressing the news that Wang Xiaogang had been killed.

All detainees must engage in folding paper ingots for the dead for at least a dozen hours every day, from morning until night. While alive, Wang Xiaogang’s daily task in his cell was sealing boxes; if he moved even slightly slowly, he would be scolded by the cell bosses and bullies. From July 19, 2024, when something happened to Wang Xiaogang, through the end of August, relevant departments came to the Weicheng District Detention Center to investigate the situation, and the detention center suddenly stopped the work. It did not resume until September 1, 2024.

Most of the detainees at the Weicheng District Detention Center in Xianyang are criminal suspects, not convicted prisoners; all detainees must fold paper ingots every day, specifically the kind of paper ingots burned for the dead. The packaging bears the label “Shaoxing ingots.” Every so often, a vehicle enters the detention center to deliver raw materials or take away finished products.

The process for folding the paper ingots is as follows:

1. Each person is given a quantity of rectangular tin foil; 2. First, several semi-finished pieces are made by placing more than a dozen sheets of tin foil together and pressing them hard to create creases; 3. The semi-finished pieces are separated into individual sheets, which are then folded into ingots along the creases; 4. Every 100 ingots are handed to the person responsible for packing; 5. The packer bundles every 100 ingots together. Every 10 bundles, or 1,000 ingots, are packed into one bag. The packing tool is a wooden frame: the ingots are arranged and aligned crosswise with both hands as if shuffling cards, and then tied with string; 6. Each “cell” requires every person to submit at least 6,000 ingots a day. The dozen-plus hours of slave labor performed by all detainees each day is unpaid. The daily workload for each person is also continually increased. In 2019, when An Baowen was warden, each detainee’s daily task was to fold more than 4,000 ingots. After Zhang Minghui became warden, by July 2024, each detainee’s daily task was to fold more than 6,000 ingots. If they failed to complete the day’s task, they faced various forms of punishment, including beatings, being forbidden to buy food, and being assigned additional night shifts. If they encountered a guard with a bad temper, verbal insults and physical punishment also occurred frequently. Some guards would even respond to detainees’ legitimate requests by saying: “You haven’t even completed your ingot task. You are not qualified to speak to me now.”

The raw material for the ingots made by detainees is silver-colored tin foil. Large amounts of paper scraps fall off during the folding process, and detainees call them “silver powder.” In practice, in that enclosed environment, with the large daily output of ingots and the almost nonstop “production” during the day and night, silver powder is everywhere. Toxic and harmful powder flies through the air, but the guards do not even provide detainees with basic masks.

There is very little time for each meal, making it impossible to wash their hands clean. During the work, people inevitably use hands covered in silver powder to rub their eyes and scratch themselves. Especially in summer, many people develop dense rashes and blisters all over their bodies, causing needle-like pain, including in private areas. Scratching open the skin with hands covered in silver powder causes unimaginable allergies, swelling, and ulceration. The hotter the weather, the more severe the symptoms. If someone cannot endure them, they can purchase, at their own expense, a type of anti-itch lotion sold inside the detention center, at 80 yuan per bottle. In addition, detainees inevitably inhale large amounts of silver powder every day, and this silver powder is toxic. According to a Baidu search, the tin foil used for folding these ingots contains large amounts of lead, and severe lead poisoning can cause death.

To do their best to complete their tasks each day, detainees usually wet old bedding or cotton. When the semi-finished pieces are separated into individual sheets, they occasionally stick together, so wetting their fingers slightly makes it easier to separate them. However, this also has side effects. Winter is extremely cold, and having to dip their fingers in water thousands of times a day causes everyone’s fingers to become frost-cracked. The cracks are very deep and do not heal: they scab over today and split open again tomorrow. The pain is excruciating.

In theory, a detention center should be heavily guarded and off-limits to unauthorized people, but small trucks nevertheless regularly enter to deliver and collect goods. What they deliver is tin foil packed in woven bags. Guards take turns ordering a particular “cell” to move the materials. One detainee said he had personally carried them from the first floor to the second floor, making three or four round trips over a distance of about 100 meters. Because of inadequate nutrition, many people simply collapsed on the ground and could not get up. Nevertheless, everyone still hoped to be allowed out to move the goods, because the guards would give each person a cigarette.

Everyone makes a rustling sound when folding the paper ingots. Dozens of people sit in an enclosed cell folding ingots simultaneously for more than a dozen hours every day. One can imagine how loud this rustling noise is.

Everyone gets up at around 6 a.m. and starts working before eating. The workplace is the large communal sleeping platform in each cell, which is used for sleeping at night and working during the day. After getting up in the morning, everyone quickly puts away their bedding. The cell bosses and bullies then spread a long roll of plastic sheeting along the outer edge of the communal platform. All detainees sit in a row, one after another, and remain busy until evening. They speak very little for more than a dozen hours because they are busy rushing to finish the work and have no time to talk. Each day, after everyone has completed their tasks, individual detainees are assigned in rotation to clean, using rags to wipe silver powder from the floor and the communal platform. After sitting all day, everyone’s legs and feet are swollen, leaving a depression when pressed, while their shoulders and backs are extremely stiff and painful. In these circumstances, their minds become increasingly numb. Even if they are interrogated or attend a trial, after returning they must still complete that day’s ingot task. Imagine that during an interrogation or trial, the person is thinking not about recounting the facts, their rights, or their future, but about finishing quickly and signing, because they still have to fold ingots after returning. This effect is subtle and gradual, while the punishment for failing to complete the task is more direct and concrete.

Whenever a “leader” came to inspect the work, the detention center would order everyone to stop working—that is, stop folding ingots—and all questions asked by the leaders had to be answered according to the “reporting script” stipulated by the detention center. This so-called “reporting script” was completely different from the actual situation. For example: Question: Are you normally allowed to buy food? Answer: No. We can only buy daily necessities, such as shampoo and toothpaste. The food we eat is a reward from the detention center for our good performance.

This work continued almost year-round without rest: seven days a week, with three days off for the Lunar New Year and two days off for the October 1 holiday. There was no time off for any of the other statutory holidays.

Let us make a rough calculation. Each detainee must complete more than 6,000 folded ingots a day. Taking 6,000 as the figure, and assuming 10 yuan per 1,000 ingots, an average of 25 people per cell, although the actual number should be greater than 25, and a total of 20 “cells”: 6,000 ÷ 1,000 × 10 yuan × 25 people × 20 cells × 30 days × 12 months = 10.8 million yuan. In other words, the Weicheng District Detention Center in Xianyang earns at least more than 10 million yuan a year in illicit income by forcing detainees to work as slaves for a year, and possibly more. The specific amount would depend on the actual total number of detainees and the accurate total number of cells; this is only a conservative estimate. Where does this enormous illicit income go? Wang Qian, the procurator stationed at the detention center by the Xianyang Weicheng District Procuratorate, has carried out procuratorial supervision at the Weicheng District Detention Center for years. Yet he turns a blind eye to such a serious slave-labor problem. Is he part of a corrupt partnership receiving a share of the profits behind the scenes, or is he deaf and blind and unable to see?

The long-term illegal and disciplinary violations committed by Zhang Minghui, warden of the Weicheng District Detention Center, and others in forcing all detained criminal suspects to perform slave labor folding paper ingots are not an isolated occurrence; they have existed for a long time. They also involve the deliberate failure of supervisory duties by senior officials, including Gui Cun she, then director of the Weicheng District Public Security Bureau, and Li Tao, deputy director responsible for detention facilities. What kind of chain of interests exists behind this? Who promoted Zhang Minghui? Zhang Minghui has violated laws and discipline for a long time, stirred up trouble, and exploited and abused all detained criminal suspects, yet the leaders of the Weicheng District Public Security Bureau and the Weicheng District Procuratorate have collectively pretended not to see it. Does this constitute a gang crime committed by a criminal organization? The most frightening crimes are not murder and arson. The most frightening crimes are those committed by people in uniform who personally manufacture wrongful and false cases. They are demons cloaked in the authority of the public security, procuratorate and courts, abandoning fairness and justice. What they destroy is not just one person, but a family and public confidence in the justice system.

The wrongdoing by the criminal group at the Weicheng District Detention Center led by Zhang Minghui in abusing all detained criminal suspects goes far beyond the single act of forcing them to perform slave labor folding paper ingots. Further revelations will be compiled and published in succession. Official news reports state that in July 2026, the Party Central Committee deployed a year-long campaign to deepen the special campaign against organized crime and eliminate local criminal gangs. We hope that the various offices for eliminating organized crime, led by the Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, will conduct a thorough investigation into the abuses and persecution openly inflicted on all detained criminal suspects by Zhang Minghui, former warden of the Xianyang Weicheng District Detention Center, and his hidden criminal protectors, and restore justice to all victims. The campaign against organized crime and the elimination of local criminal gangs should not stop at slogans and going through the motions; it should be implemented in practice, ensuring that every matter receives a response and every case is resolved, so that the people can feel the results directly.

Victim’s family member: Wang Xiaoqin

2026.8.5