Chinese man convicted for building bridge ignites public debate over judicial power
- Intermediate court in China takes up case of villager found guilty of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ for constructing river crossing in 2019
- Some question whether China should eliminate the criminal offence, which has been used to jail dissidents and activists
The 2019 conviction of Huang Deyi, a villager from the city of Baicheng in the northeastern province of Jilin, has come under public scrutiny in recent days after his case was put under review, prompting many to question whether a local court abused its power by punishing him for his attempt to fix the local traffic bottleneck.
In 2014, Huang built a floating bridge over a river in his village that had no other road bridges. He built the bridge at his own expense and charged people to cross.
In 2019, Huang and 17 of his relatives involved in the construction were convicted by a local court of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. Huang was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment following two years of probation.
The judgment said Huang collected a total of 52,950 yuan (US$7,331) in bridge fees between 2014 and 2018, which “is a crime of forcibly soliciting money or property from others, causing a bad social impact and disrupting social order”. It said “the circumstances are serious, and his behaviour constitutes the crime of provoking trouble”.
Huang was jailed for 11 months before being convicted in December 2019. He has remained out of prison since finishing his probation in late 2021.
At the end of 2021, Huang filed an appeal, which was dismissed in March. He appealed again in June.