Detained Chinese Woman’s Family Says Police Targeted Those Seeking Legal Help

Family members of Guizhou entrepreneur Fu Guoyan say more than a dozen relatives, friends, and employees were taken away after attempting to find legal counsel for her, adding another layer to a case that has already left a decades-old private business largely shuttered.

According to accounts circulated by Fu’s family and residents of the Xinglong Fengdan Bailu residential complex in Guiyang, more than 100 plainclothes officers, police, and armed personnel entered the neighborhood on the night of Sept. 30, blocked access roads, and entered several homes.

Family members claimed that officers did not present search warrants or identification and took away more than a dozen people who had helped Fu’s son, Ma Xianghong, seek lawyers and pursue legal remedies. Among those reportedly affected were company employees and relatives who had contributed money for Buddhist monks to pray for Fu.

According to family and local accounts, local authorities were examining whether those activities constituted the use of religion or “superstition” to interfere with law enforcement.

From entrepreneur to prolonged detention

Fu founded the Guizhou handicrafts company Qian Cui Xing in the 1990s, building a business specializing in batik, embroidery, silverwork, and other traditional products. Employees have said the company eventually supported hundreds of small workshops and thousands of rural artisans. Reporting based on company accounts says Qian Cui Xing supplied much of the material displayed in Guizhou’s pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

For the best of our weekly content！

You are now signed up for our newsletter

Check your email to complete sign up

Fu’s legal troubles began in November 2024, when provincial disciplinary investigators reportedly took her away at Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport as she prepared to travel to Hainan for medical treatments. She was then held under “liuzhi,” a form of detention used by China’s supervisory authorities, for nine months through two consecutive detention periods.

When Fu was released in August 2025, relatives said she had lost significant weight, her hair had turned gray, and she struggled to walk and speak clearly. Fu later told family members she had been subjected to coercive interrogation while investigators pressured her to admit concealing 9 million yuan in alleged criminal proceeds for an official.

New detention, different allegations

Fu was again summoned for questioning on April 21, 2026, just four days after authorities announced that Xia Wei, a former deputy director of the Guizhou Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision’s 10th review and investigation office, was himself under investigation for suspected serious disciplinary and legal violations. However, Fu did not return home.

The following day, her family received a notice from police in Cen’gong County stating that she had been placed under “designated residential surveillance” on suspicion of “group licentiousness,” according to reporting based on documents shown to her relatives.

Family members said Fu had never lived or conducted business in Cen’gong. Weeks later, police reportedly began seeking Qian Cui Xing’s financial records. Employees said officers told them the investigation was then focused on “concealing criminal proceeds” rather than the earlier sexual-misconduct allegation.

One employee asked whether this meant authorities had “detained someone first and then looked for evidence afterward.” Police did not directly answer, according to the account.

Son offers to hand business to government

As the company’s operations ground to a halt, Fu’s son Ma Xianghong published an open letter to Guizhou Governor Li Bingjun in August offering to donate Qian Cui Xing’s brand, customer resources, and other assets to the government if officials would keep the company operating.

Ma said his goal was to protect the livelihoods of nearly 100 employees and the rural artisans who depend on the company’s orders. “Qian Cui Xing’s nearly 100 employees need to survive, and the tens of thousands of embroiderers in the mountains who depend on Qian Cui Xing still need to earn money to support their families,” he wrote, adding, “Their lives are too difficult.”

Ma also disputed allegations that his mother concealed 9 million yuan for an official. “There were no bank transfers and no physical evidence,” he said, arguing that the accusation “completely defies physical reality.”

The case has become another flashpoint in an ongoing debate inside China over the treatment of private entrepreneurs and the use of coercive and overreaching investigative powers. For Fu’s family, however, the most pressing questions is where she and several of those taken away in connection with efforts to assist her are now being held, and when they will be able to obtain legal representation.