Shenzhen Business Journal reporters were beaten up by the chairman of Yijing Central City while following up on a story regarding allegations of illegal shop selling. The incident has drawn wide public attention. It was learned that Yang Xingfeng, Chairman of Guangdong Provincial Association of Journalists expressed his concern over the issue. Wang Jingsheng, Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee Member and Minister of Propaganda Department made an instruction about this matter. Liu Weihong, Chairman of Yijing Central City and member of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial Committee of CPPCC, went to the injured female reporter's house yesterday afternoon to apologize for his wrongdoing. Meanwhile, he responded to media reports concerning Yijing Central City's alleged illegal shop selling for the first time.
From February 7 to February 10, Shenzhen Business Journal continuously reported on Yijing Central City's "suspected irregularities in shop selling". Qin Xingmei, the reporter, introduced that she had contacted Liu Weihong many times through telephone and text messages hoping to get his response to the matter but received no reply.
It was not until February 13 in the afternoon that Liu Weihong held a press conference inviting multiple media outlets to attend specifically to clarify doubts about Yijing Central City's "suspected irregularities in shop selling" event. Liu Weihong, who arrived nearly one hour late, refused to answer questions from Shenzhen Business Journal at the scene and then hit Qin Xingmei, a reporter from Shenzhen Business Journal, during her follow-up interview.
It was learned that in response to the incident where a female member of the Guangdong Provincial Political Consultative Conference beat up a Shenzhen Business Journal reporter on the street, Wang Jingsheng, Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee Member and Minister of Propaganda Department took it very seriously after learning about it and personally called Huang Yanglüe, President of Shenzhen Press Group, saying that "we must clearly criticize and condemn any improper behavior that obstructs or interferes with the normal reporting work of news professionals", "the personal dignity and professional dignity of reporters must not be trampled or violated."
Around 3:30 PM yesterday, reporters repeatedly called Liu Weihong's mobile phone, but it was turned off. A high-level official Ms. Wu from Yijing Central City introduced that Liu Weihong had gone to Hong Kong to participate in an important investment promotion activity and would not be available for interviews in the next three days.
However, a senior editor of Shenzhen Business Journal introduced yesterday that at 4:30 PM yesterday, Liu Weihong came to the Hotline News Department of Shenzhen Business Journal to talk with the reporters. Liu Weihong admitted to hitting someone and acknowledged that it was wrong, making a sincere apology for the beating incident. Liu also made a positive response for the first time to Shenzhen Business Journal's report on Yijing Central City's suspected irregularities in shop selling.
The domestic major portal sites, dozens of party newspapers, and metropolitan newspapers all reprinted this incident, triggering widespread heated discussions.
It was learned that according to relevant staff members of Shenzhen Real Estate Market Supervision Department and the First Directly Affiliated Branch of Shenzhen Planning and Land Resources Commission, they have already started investigating Yijing Central City's irregularities in shop selling. Yesterday, the commission had already summoned relevant parties to understand the situation of Yijing Central City's shop selling, but the investigation would take some time to reach a conclusion.
Relevant personnel from Shenzhen Economic Investigation Bureau revealed that the police indeed had received reports from shop owners, and according to legal procedures, preliminary investigations and evidence collection would be carried out first. Currently, there is no case filed regarding this matter.
Ms. Wu, a high-level official of Yijing Central City who was interviewed by the reporter, introduced that Yijing Central City's finance department had refunded money to all owners yesterday. However, Mr. Yu, the husband of Ms. Yu, and Mr. Qin, both owners, stated when interviewed by the reporter that they had rushed to Yijing Central City yesterday morning, but Wang Xuemei, the sales director of Yijing Central City, said that they had to wait for Liu Weihong's notification.
Futian police stated yesterday that both parties completed their statements at around 8 PM the night of the incident, each giving different accounts. The next step would be to combine the injury assessment report, gather evidence, and decide whether to mediate based on the two parties' situations.
■ Event Review
Business Journal Reporter Pursued Follow-up Interview and Was Beaten
According to the Shenzhen Business Journal report, Liu Weihong specially held a press conference at 2:30 PM on February 13 to respond to the newspaper's report on Yijing Central City's "suspected irregularities in shop selling." Liu Weihong, who was nearly one hour late, faced the Business Journal's questions and said, "I won't answer any of your questions! I will kick you out soon."
After Liu Weihong accepted interviews from other media except Shenzhen Business Journal and left the press conference site, Qin Xingmei, a reporter from Shenzhen Business Journal, met Liu Weihong at the entrance of the Bank of China branch on the east side of Yijing Central City. After Qin Xingmei proposed an interview request, Liu Weihong forcibly grabbed Qin Xingmei.
The report said: "Before Qin Xingmei could steady herself, Liu Weihong threw a punch directly at Qin Xingmei's chest. Qin Xingmei fell back, unable to catch her breath for a long time, and questioned, 'Why did you hit me?' Liu Weihong pointed his finger at Qin Xingmei and continued to say, 'So what if I hit you? I'm going to be with you for the rest of my life.' After punching Qin Xingmei, Liu Weihong tried to lunge forward again towards Qin Xingmei but was stopped by the staff and security guards of the Bank of China."
The words and actions of Liu Weihong as reported by Shenzhen Business Journal were confirmed by the report of the Xin Express journalist.
According to the Shenzhen Business Journal report, at the press conference site yesterday afternoon, Liu Weihong pointed at the reporter and said, "The reporter wants to pull me down from my position as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference." According to Jiang Xiaocan, a colleague of Qin Xingmei, when the reporter asked Liu Weihong to provide evidence, Liu said, "I'm not as dirty as you, recording phone calls!"
Additionally, Liu Weihong said, "If you didn't take money, would you dare to write like this?" The involved party Qin Xingmei stated that she only sighed once while interviewing property buyers, "As a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Liu Weihong doesn't cherish his own honor," and did not accept any money from the interviewees.
The Provincial Journalist Association Urged Punishment for the Perpetrator
Yesterday, Fan Xiangqun, Secretary-General of the Guangdong Provincial Journalist Association, sent a letter of condolence from Chairman Yang Xingfeng to Shenzhen Business Journal.
Chairman Yang Xingfeng stated that the Guangdong Provincial Journalist Association closely monitored the incident of the Shenzhen Business Journal reporter being beaten and extended warm condolences to the reporter.
Chairman Yang Xingfeng, representing the Provincial Journalist Association, expressed the following opinions:
1. Journalist reporting is an official duty, and their lives and properties are protected by Chinese law.
2. Liu Weihong hit the reporter during a press conference he himself convened and arrogantly said, "What if I hit you?" This serious incident reflects several issues: First, the perpetrator lacks civic awareness and openly infringes on others' right to life and health, which constitutes illegal behavior; Second, the perpetrator lacks moral awareness, has no service consciousness, and ignores the legitimate demands of small business owners; Third, the perpetrator does not understand public opinion supervision and disrespects the news media.
3. The Provincial Journalist Association condemned the perpetrator morally and urged the public security organs to impose public order penalties on him. If the reporter suffers serious harm such as light injuries or worse, relevant departments should be urged to hold him criminally responsible.
■ Journalist Investigation
Owners: Yijing Central City's Shop Selling Suspected Multiple Violations
The focus of the reporter's beating and media coverage all converged on Liu Weihong's Yijing Central City.
At the end of 2011, a property buyer Ms. Zhu claimed that in December 2010, she purchased a shop located in Yijing Central City Plaza on Fuhua Road in Futian District through public sales and paid a total of more than 13.25 million yuan. However, four months overdue, she was not only unable to receive the purchased shop and its full rental income but also failed to get refunds and interest compensation as stipulated in the contract.
Shenzhen Business Journal investigated and found that the Shenzhen Planning and Land Resources Commission responded that New Yijing Commercial Center ("Yijing Central City") has yet to complete the registration of separate certificates, constituting illegal sales.
According to the investigation, since December 2010, Yijing Central City has distributed promotional booklets through three intermediary companies: Century 21, Centaline, and World Huahua. When the reporter inquired related intermediary agencies yesterday, Century 21 Property indicated that they acted as agents for Yijing Central City's sales over a year ago, but currently have stopped this business. A relevant person in charge of Centaline stated that Centaline's secondary market department participated in the related work of Yijing Central City's shop sales, but after knowing the unclear ownership rights, Centaline's shop department ceased involvement.
Lin Yanqing, a lawyer from Guangdong Yangquan Law Firm who handled the entrustment of three property buyers, was interviewed by our newspaper yesterday. He introduced that comprehensively speaking, the main body of Yijing Central City's ownership rights has problems. At the time of selling the shops, the ownership certificate was mortgaged to the bank, and the owners did not have the ownership certificate, so they could only sign the entrusted property buying and selling contract. Within the delivery deadline specified in the contract term, the property buyers could not take possession of the shop, but the seller was still promoting the sale of the shops. After the media exposure, there has been no substantial progress in the property buyers' issues.
Lawyer Lin Yanqing stated that the shop sellers arranged several companies and individuals (all affiliated companies and shareholders or executives) to guide the property buyers to sign contracts and supplementary agreements that did not express their true intentions. There are four different remittance accounts for Yijing Central City's shop sales, suspecting that the property buyers' shop purchase funds and intention deposits flowed into underground banks.
Liu Weihong's First Response: "I Have No Illegal Acts"
Yesterday afternoon, Liu Weihong, member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CPPCC, Chairman, and President of Shenzhen Yijing Central City Development Co., Ltd., responded positively for the first time to multiple reports questioning the alleged irregular shop sales events of Yijing Central City since February 7.
"I have never committed any illegal or fraudulent acts, and the police have not come to investigate me." Liu Weihong explained that the reason why he did not answer the phone was because he was attending a meeting at Shenzhen Business Journal all afternoon.
Unaware of the Flow of Property Buyers' Shop Purchase Funds
Liu Weihong stated that he is the actual controlling shareholder of Bao Yi Property Management (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. and Barbados Central City. The entrustment of brokerage agencies to sell Yijing Central City shops and publish sales advertisements were all executed under the name of Shenzhen Yijing Central City Commercial Development Co., Ltd.
Currently, since Yijing Central City has been mortgaged to Citibank and other "bank syndicate" institutions, to avoid assuming the legal responsibilities involved in selling mortgaged items, sales activities have not been conducted under the name of Bao Yi Property but instead signed various types of non-standard real estate sales contracts in Shenzhen with Shenzhen Yijing Central City Commercial Development Co., Ltd. or Legao Holding Co., Ltd. as the party B (trustee). Bao Yi Property has half of its shares in my hands, so I have the authority to dispose of the property. In this way, the bank cannot penalize Bao Yi Property, and there is no fraudulent act, nor is it for embezzling the money of property buyers.
As for the flow of the property buyers' shop purchase funds and intention deposits, whether they went to Liu Weihong's personal account, Bao Yi Property's account, or were guided by the notice letter to be deposited into a hardware store, an electronics store, etc., I do not manage the finances and am unaware of the situation.
Liu Weihong disclosed that the total area of Yijing Central City is 140,000 square meters, with an estimated public sale of 15,000 square meters. The actual transaction amounted to three to four thousand square meters, with less than 4 billion yuan, including part of the full payment from some property buyers and part of the intention deposits. There were no refund disputes with any property buyers for the December 2010 sales; for the October 2011 second sales, only partial refunds totaling approximately 400 million yuan for some property buyers are currently being processed. For the latter, one reason is that some people requested double returns, which could not be met; the other reason was to channel those who caused trouble to pressure Citibank, but unexpectedly, the pressure eventually landed on my own company.
"The Legal Judgment Makes the Shop Sale Legal"
In January 2011, Bao Yi Property signed a supplementary agreement with the First Bureau of the Shenzhen Planning and Land Resources Commission, allowing part of the properties to handle segmented transfers. But up to now, no segmented certificate procedures have been handled, and the Shenzhen Planning and Land Resources Commission defined it as illegal sales. Regarding this, Liu Weihong said: "I studied law myself, and there are no laws or regulations stating that the real estate certificate must be divided before it can be sold. Moreover, we signed a trust buying and selling contract, not a formal real estate sales contract. We also informed the property buyers and brokerage agencies that the real estate certificate was mortgaged to CCB and other 'syndicate' banks, so Bao Yi Company could not sign the contract, and it could only be signed by Shenzhen Yijing Central City Development Co., Ltd. or Legao Holding."
Liu Weihong added: "I believe that as long as the bank agrees, properties in a mortgage state can be sold. For the second sale of Yijing Central City, the bank originally agreed, but later due to the inability to approve bridge loans, the bank suddenly disagreed at the start of the sale. At that time, I had already done the advertisement, paid the brokerage agency fees, spent 20 million yuan, and the customers had come, so I had to continue selling the shops. This was my misjudgment of the bank and foreign shareholders, and it might also be due to bad people interfering."
Regarding the content of the "Open Letter" published by Bao Yi Property on January 13, Liu Weihong explained that this was due to the pressure from the bank, Prudential Financial Group of America, another shareholder of Barbados Central City, unilaterally making it public. I was in a difficult situation and just tacitly approved it. I myself have no illegal behavior, if there was, I wouldn't come to the newspaper office to respond, but would take the money and go abroad.
Liu Weihong also said: "I am currently suing the Shenzhen Planning and Land Resources Commission and waiting for the judgment of the Futian Court. Once this judgment comes out, my shop selling will be legal. The reason for the lawsuit is that from 2002-2007, Shenzhen Yijing Central City Commercial Development Co., Ltd. developed and constructed Yijing Central City Plaza. In August 2007, the company signed a transfer agreement with Bao Yi Property Management (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. However, Bao Yi Property never paid the full transfer amount of 475 million yuan to the company. Yet, the Shenzhen Planning and Land Resources department issued the real estate certificate to Bao Yi Property. I demand the cancellation of this transfer registration."
Coordinated by Southern Daily reporter Li Ronghua, written by Southern Daily reporters Li Ronghua and Qu Guangning