Letter appealing for help!!!Patriotic overseas Chinese businessperson speaks out and denounces a series of mistreatment. -letter of appeal to Australia Consulate in Guangzhou China

China Aid Association
Letter appealing for help!!!

October 22, 2007

— Patriotic overseas Chinese businessperson speaks out and denounces a series of mistreatment.
Dear Australian consul general of Guangzhou:
How are you? My name is Xiao Miner, an investor of Guangzhou Enoch Biological Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (an exclusively foreign-owned enterprise).  I am an ethnic Chinese with Australian citizenship and my passport number is M5148221.  My Hong Kong identity card number is G073259 (0).  My company was founded in 2004 in Panyu District in Guangzhou Municipality.  It is founded and registered according to the law of the People’s Republic of China.  My company has a legal representative’s business license issued by Panyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce.  I also have the production permit issued by the relevant government agencies and I am a legal business operator. However, at 2:10 p.m. on August 21 of this year, Investigation Brigade for Commercial Crimes of Panyu Branch of Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce sealed my company (August 29, September 24) on the charge of “suspected in conducting business without a license.”  I have already told the consulate about what happened and the recent developments are as follows:
On August 21 of this year, people from Panyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal  Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce broke into my company’s site of operation at Yujing Garden in Luoxi’s New Town without presenting any law  enforcement documents or going through any legal procedures required for law enforcement.  They didn’t present any legal documents or lists of items they confiscated.  Their charge was “suspicion of conducting business operation without a license.”  They swept through the site and took away 48 computer monitors from my company, along with 49 computers, one notebook computer, over 20 folders and some private belongings.  They even threatened Chen Heping, an employee of the company, and searched his handbag.  They also took some other employees to Luoxi Police Station where they locked these employees together with real criminals for over 10 hours.  It is almost two months since they confiscated these objects and they still haven’t returned them.  During their law enforcement, only a few of them were wearing uniforms. (When I strongly demanded it, the list of confiscated items was processed retroactively on August 23). At the same time, my company’s factory at Hualong Township in Panyu suffered more serious damages for the same reason.  The law enforcement officers drove the employees to one side of the factory and forced Liang Shaoping to open the safes of my company and took by force the important documents in the safes.  They also took two computers and a number of other items.  On the second day, Liu, the squad leader of Panyu Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce and two other law enforcement officers, came to the factory once again and pried open the cabinets by themselves and took away by force the recipes for over 40 products of my company.  On September 5, Panyu Branch of Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce used the media for a public stunt.  They distorted facts and vilified my company and intentionally blackened the image of the company (please see the appendix for the newspaper’s reply to the news media), so much so that the business operation of my company has collapsed and we can conduct a normal business operation.  On the fourth day after this occurred, they tried to punish us by threatening my landlord not to rent the house to me.
2.   On September 17, the Panyu Branch of Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce nominally unsealed the properties confiscated from my company and transferred them to Investigation Brigade for Commercial Crimes of Panyu District Branch of Public Security Bureau.  It was not until September 19 that the Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce notified me to sign retroactively the slip for the unsealing.  Besides this, Panyu District Branch of Public Security Bureau froze my company and my personal accounts without giving me a notice.  It was not until September 17 that we learned from the director of Agricultural Branch of Bank of China that our accounts had been frozen by Panyu Public Security Bureau.  Even now, I have not been given any legal documents for what Panyu Branch of Public Security Bureau has done to us.
3.   We visited Panyu District of Public Security Bureau on September 20.  As the policemen in charge of our case avoided seeing us, we left our phone numbers in the hope that we could learn the reasons for this.  We still haven’t heard from them yet.  On September 22, my husband Wu Kui and I intended to go to Hong Kong and spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with our families.  As we were going  through the border’s checkpoint, we learned that we were not allowed to leave the country.  We didn’t know the reasons why we could not see our relatives.  We didn’t know anything about it beforehand and our families worried about us a lot.
4.   In total helplessness, we went to report this at the Office of Petition of the Municipal Public Security Bureau on September 25 where we were received by Director Qi Xiaolin.  When Director Qi heard my situation, he promised right there to notify Panyu Branch of Public Security Bureau to answer my question.  On September 26, we contacted Zhou Zemin from Panyu Public Security Bureau.  I then went to Panyu Branch of Public Security Bureau.  During the interrogation at Panyu Branch of Public Security Bureau, they didn’t come to the point when we asked them the following three questions:
a. When we asked about the accounts being sealed on September 13, Officer Zhou Zemin replied that it was sealed by the Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce and that it was not sealed by them.  Wang Binghong from the Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce said they didn’t know the details of the incident and they didn’t have the right to seal and that it was sealed by Panyu Branch of Public Security Bureau.  I’d like to know who really sealed the accounts of my company.
b.  When asked why they didn’t allow us to leave China, Officer Zhou replied that it was the decision from the Provincial Public Security Department.
c. When asked what laws we have violated now that it has already been two months since the incident, no department could answer this question.
5.   On the afternoon of September 27, I went again to the Petition Office of the Provincial Public Security Department without any result.  At 5 o’clock on that same day, a person named Wei Weihong from Panyu Public Security Bureau called to notify me that I should hand over to them the seal of the company to be kept by the Public Security Bureau.
6.   At 8:30 on the morning of October 12, my husband Wu Kui and I Xiao Miner went to work.  As soon as we arrived the office, we were house arrested by Panyu Public Security Bureau where we have been staying till this time.  All our papers and passports are taken away from us and they sometimes bring us some food.  Other times, there was no food.  When asked for the reason of putting us under house arrest, the answer was we are criminal suspects (They didn’t tell us what crimes we have allegedly committed).
7.   They put us under house arrest just because of this and there are five or six plain-clothed policemen on guard in front of the door 24 hours a day.  This is really unimaginable!!!!
8.   On October 15, they even took away my cell phone and my husband’s cell phone and other communication equipment.  This has made us unable to have contact with our family members who worry a lot about us.
9.   Due to various types of stress, our health is getting worse and worse.  If the thing goes on like this for too long, it could even threaten our lives.
10. Panyu Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce’s investigation on my company on the charge of “operating without a business license,” my house arrest in the hands of Panyu Public Security Bureau, their bullying of us by counting on that we don’t have relatives, friends or power here and their persecution by all possible means have pretty much destroyed this sunrise business of ours.
This is an emergency and I am here seeking help from Consul General of Australia in Guangzhou.  I implore that you contact the leaders in Guangzhou Municipal Government and Guangzhou Public Security Bureau immediately and urge the agencies related to this case to investigate further and get everything clear so that we can close this case as soon as possible and give back our personal freedom.  In that case you can save my company, unseal my bank accounts and solve the problems in our livelihood, help my company go back to production and restore our reputation.  This could reduce the losses of our investment in China.  We would appreciate it very much!
As an investor of a foreign-invested enterprise, I hereby request that:
1.   Give back my personal freedom and save my company.
2.   Unseal my bank accounts and solve the basic needs in our livelihood.
3.   Return the confiscated properties of my company, help us resume our production, restore our reputation and reduce the losses of my investment in China.
4.   What are the legal basis for such an action on my company by Panyu Branch of Guangzhou Municipal Administration Bureau for Industry and Commerce and Panyu District Branch of Public Security Bureau?
5.   Lift as soon as possible the restrictions on me and my husband Wu Kui in entry and exit and lift the threat on our personal freedom.  Thank you.
Yours,
Eliza Ng (Xiao Miner)                                      
Phone: 13312899000
020-34541812 ext. 843
Fax: 020-34541812 ext. 888