Draft:The Zhao Fuqiang Case

The Zhao Fuqiang case（赵富强案）, or Xiaohonglou case（Hanyupinyin）, also known as the underworld case in Little Red House（小红楼） and the Little Red House case（小红楼案） in Shanghai ,is a series of triad cases in Shanghai Taipu（泰浦） District of the people's Republic of China from the 2000s to the 2020s..

The owner of the case, Zhao Fuqiang (March 4, 1973), is a shareholder of Shanghai Wanji（萬際） Culture and Media Co., Ltd., who once owned the operation right of the "Peace and Safe Shanghai" （《平安上海》）program of the Shanghai Rule of Law Channel. He comes from Taixing rural areas of Jiangsu Province and has started housing rental services for a period of time since he came to Shanghai's Taipu District in the 1990s. Zhao Fuqiang is accused of monopolizing housing sources by fraud and collecting rent by means of violence in the process of shop leasing. The verdict shows that from October 2017 to March 2019, Zhao Fuqiang used violence, coercion and other means. A total of 5 women were raped 13 times.

Zhao Fuqiang arranged for a number of female sex workers, bank officials and state-owned enterprise staff in the rented office building, including Lu Yan（卢焱）, secretary of the political and legal Committee of the Yangpu District CPC Committee. In 2014, Zhao Fuqiang bought a six-story building at 632 Xuchang（許昌） Road, Yangpu District and named it Chuangfu Building（which means Creative and Rich）（创富大厦）. This building is about 200 meters away from Yangpu District Government and Yangpu District Women's Federation, also known as Xiao Honglou.

Filing and investigation
In November 2018, a woman filed an official complaint with the Discipline Inspection Commission and the Supervisory Commission of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai, accusing Zhao Fuqiang of raping and harming women, as well as bribing officials with money and favors. In January 2019, she reported the rape case to the Yangpu Public Security Sub-Bureau.

In the first half of 2019, Lu Yan, the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Yangpu District Committee, learned through Yangpu Sub-Bureau Deputy Director Cen Hongquan that Zhao Fuqiang was under investigation by the Yangpu Sub-Bureau. Lu Yan then informed Zhao Fuqiang about the ongoing investigation. On the morning of May 15, 2019, Lu Yan informed Zhao Fuqiang in his office that authorities were preparing to immediately arrest him and advised him to leave Shanghai as soon as possible. That night, Zhao Fuqiang fled back to his hometown in Taixing, Jiangsu, with three women. Around 1:00 PM on May 16, the police arrested Zhao Fuqiang and others in Taixing.

Due to the involvement of numerous officials and occurring during the special campaign to eradicate organized crime and eliminate corruption, this series of cases was not only investigated by the public security authorities but also overseen by the Central Anti-Corruption and Anti-Crime Office (also known as the "National Anti-Corruption Office"). On July 29, 2019, Wu Yuliang, the head of the 16th supervision team of the Central Anti-Corruption and Anti-Crime Office, provided feedback on the supervision situation to Shanghai, emphasizing a focus on resolved and ongoing cases related to organized crime and corruption. The directive included a thorough investigation into the network of relationships and protective umbrellas behind these cases. On the same evening, Lu Yan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Yangpu District Committee and the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, underwent disciplinary review and supervision investigation by the Discipline Inspection Commission and the Supervisory Commission of Shanghai.

Litigation and trial
On June 30, 2020, the second Branch of the Shanghai Municipal people's Procuratorate initiated a public prosecution against a series of cases.

At the end of September 2020, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate people's Court pronounced sentences on a series of cases, among which 38 people, including Zhao Fuqiang, were sentenced on September 22.

After the judgment of the first instance, 19 defendants, including Zhao Fuqiang, filed an appeal. The case was submitted to the higher authorities, and the Shanghai higher people's Court tried the appeal case. On December 8, 2020, the Shanghai higher people's Court conducted a second trial. The trial process claimed that the trial was held in private "because of privacy concerns".

On December 30, 2020, the Shanghai higher people's Court delivered a final judgment.

Judgment result
On September 22, 2020, the Shanghai Municipal No. 2 Intermediate people's Court sentenced Zhao Fuqiang to death with a two-year suspended sentence and sentenced 37 other defendants to prison terms ranging from two years and six months to 20 years. On December 30, 2020, the Shanghai higher people's Court finally upheld the original judgment.

In the Zhao Fuqiang case, at least 13 state functionaries and cadres of state-owned enterprises were involved in the case, such as:


 * Lu Yan, member of the standing Committee of the Yangpu District CPC Committee and secretary of the political and legal Commission, was sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment in the first instance.
 * Ren Yongfei（任湧飞）, president of Yangpu District Court, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison;
 * Hu Chenghao（胡程浩）, the former director of Pingliang Road（平凉路）Police Station, and Sun Zhendong（孙震东）, deputy director, were sentenced to 4 years and 1 year and 6 months in prison respectively for harboring Zhao Fuqiang's underworld organization and condoning the organization's illegal and criminal activities;
 * Cen Hongquan（岑宏权）, deputy director of the Yangpu Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, once disclosed the case filing status to Lu Yan and was investigated in 2019. His follow-up is unknown.

Follow-up
In November of that year, this series of cases was unearthed, and with the keyword "Little Red Mansion Case" as the keyword, it caused widespread dissemination and discussion in the Chinese mainland media.
 * Of the nine female specific relatives implicated in the Zhao Fuqiang case and sentenced, six had minor children with Zhao Fuqiang; these minor children, together with the children born by surrogacy in the incident, faced difficulties in hukou and upbringing..
 * On January 16, 2021, Caixin reported on this series of cases with a special article "The whole story of the downfall of Shanghai's 'Little Red Mansion' gangsters"（《上海“小红楼”黑势力覆灭始末》） ；Add "illustrating the Black Gold Kingdom of Zhao Fuqiang, the owner of the Little Red Mansion in Shanghai"（《图解沪上“小红楼”主人赵富强的黑金王国》） on January 19..
 * On November 1, 2021, Zhang Zheng（张铮）, the former deputy president of the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court and the president of the Shanghai Songjiang Court who presided over the trial of Zhao Fuqiang's gang-related case, was investigated.