When Luo Zhifei, an employee of a Chinese local government in the Guangdong region, prepared a fraudulent report on bees in 2023, he was asked by police about whether he had no expectations of visiting, or if there was any foreign contact and threatened to be sent to a mental hospital.
Luo, who fled to the US last year, recently spoke to the Chinese version of the Epoch Times how he was forced to supplement animal agriculture statistics to match the communist regime’s GDP targets. He also alleged that his boss and colleagues fined farmers on false charges to meet local government funds and targeted them for opposing such practices.
Luo, 40, was born in a rural area of Jiangxi in the southeastern part of Guangdong Province. Between July 2020 and summer 2024, veterinary graduate students worked for the Agriculture Bureau (Bara) at the Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, first as administrators of the Agricultural Law Enforcement Division, and then as animal agriculture statisticians in the town of Paitan.
For those born into a typical rural family, jobs at Chinese public institutions, commonly known as “iron rice bowls,” are not easily available. Applicants must undergo examinations and interviews, and they are vetted to meet a variety of criteria. Apart from having no criminal history, they should not show any signs of opposition to the Communist Party of China (CCP) or socialist ideology.
“To me, working for the government meant job security,” Luo said. “I heard that… the government in Guangdong is relatively transparent and has done more to serve the people. That’s what I thought before I started my work.”
Law enforcement abuse
When Luo worked in the Agricultural Law Enforcement Division of Roses in Zhenchen District, it was part of his job to prepare documents for law enforcement cases, and he often received photographic evidence from his colleagues on the scene.
Many of the photos “showed how they basically bullied the farmers,” he said. “When I saw helplessness and rage in the eyes of the farmers, I couldn’t stand it.”
According to Luo, in many cases, officers did not have enough evidence to justify the penalty, but they still issued burdensome fines and often forced farmers to pay by intimidating them.
The Zengcheng district is known for its production of Lychee, a tropical fruit commonly found in southern China and Southeast Asia.
According to Luo, local Lychee farmers should only use pesticides that specify that they can be used on lychee trees.
“As soon as officers find an empty (non-compliant) pesticide bottle near lychee, they will open the case regardless of whether there are other crops or not. The evidence is not sufficient because they didn’t know if pesticides were used in lychee or other crops,” he said.
“Many farmers said they didn’t use pesticides on lychees, and officers threatened them.”
According to Luo, in 2021, a farmer accused of misuse of such pesticides will be fined 8,000 yuan ($1,110) if he is registered as the sole trader. For those registered as cooperatives, they were fined ten times the amount, or 80,000 yuan. If farmers compete for a fine, officers threatened to report them to police, telling farmers that the records would affect their children’s education and employment opportunities, Luo said.
Farmers will walk through fields on Shazai Island near Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China on June 22, 2016. In Zengcheng district of Zengcheng district, which includes the island, farmers must only use pesticides approved for lychee farming or fines. Luo Zhifei said Zengcheng recorded the most agricultural enforcement case in Guangdong in 2020, seizing the assets, recording 2.6 million yuan (approximately $361,000) in fines. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
In March 2022, Luo disputed at the meeting, during which the officers were encouraged to hand out more financial penalties to increase their income.
“The Chief of the section said that the Zengcheng government is struggling financially and he encouraged us to increase the number of enforcement cases and the amount of fines,” he said.
“In 2020, Zengcheng had the largest number of cases of agricultural law enforcement among all districts in Guangdong. He said he should aim for number one again in 2022.”
According to Luo, in 2021, the district department raised 2.6 million yuan (approximately $361,000) in fines and property confiscation, while the section chief set an annual target of 4 million yuan (approximately $555,200) in 2022.
During the meeting, Lou said the penalties need to be backed up with evidence.
“We cannot tweak farmers just for income because of the pandemic or because the district government cannot sell land to raise funds,” he recalls telling a colleague.
Under Chinese law, the state owns all the land in urban areas, but rural land is partially owned by the state, with some under local collective ownership. Local governments rely heavily on income generated from selling rights to use the land and other property-related taxes.
Since 2022, local government total revenues from selling rights to use the land have declined for the third year in a row. The figures released by the Ministry of Finance in 2022 were 6.7 trillion yuan (approximately $900 billion), down 23.3% from 2021. It fell by 13.2% in 2023 and 16% in 2024.
After Luo’s remarks in March 2022, the department head and deputy chief of Zengcheng district who attended the meeting refused Luo’s allegations that the fine was unfair, Luo said.
According to Luo, when he began working at Rose, his boss clearly assessed the quality of his work, but since the meeting he was expelled by his colleagues and the district chief turned his work over.
In addition to exile, “my worldview has also begun to collapse,” he said. “I’ve begun to suffer from insomnia and depression. I’ve seen my doctor since May 2022.”
Farmers water their gardens in Zengcheng, Guangzhou, China on December 16th, 2004. China Photos/Getty Images
Fake numbers
A year later, Luo was reassigned to work in the Animal Health Supervision Unit in the town of Paitan, Zengcheng district, collecting and reporting statistics on animal farming production.
“As soon as I was reassigned, I knew it was a bad job,” he said. “Because I was responsible for reporting the data. If there was anything wrong with the data, I was responsible. But I was not given time to collect the data.”
Luo said he instructed his boss to structure the statistics for him and his colleagues.
“He said: ‘We’ve always used national GDP targets.'” For example, there was a national GDP target at the beginning of the year, with about 5% in 2023.
Luo said this method was used to produce most, if not all reports.
In 2023, the Chinese government reported an annual increase in GDP of 5.2%.
Despite an approximately 5% increase in the book, in fact, most of the Paitan farmers, including poultry, cow and goat farmers, lost their money during and after the pandemic, Luo said.
“Judging from the conversations I have with them, I think about 70 or 80% of the farmers were losing their money. Only 20-30% of them benefited,” he said.
In December 2023, Luo openly questioned the price of honey in local statistics.
Luo’s squad reported that the honey price was 50 yuan (about $7) per kilogram, and the price was 26 yuan. Luo said he knew the real price because he conducted a fraudulent investigation of beekeepers on his own time and produced a report.
“I knew there would be an annual general meeting on statistics in December 2023, so I printed a report on bee and honey prices, distributed a copy of the report to each attendee and shared my views.”
Luo told his colleagues that if all Chinese towns used the same data reporting procedure, Beijing had committed serious policy errors and farmers were unable to obtain the necessary support as it appeared to be profitable from the book.
“I was not allowed to finish my speech,” he said.
Security guards from China’s Armed Police Stand Guard before the opening session of the National Congress held in Beijing on March 5, 2017. Our goal is approximately 5% for 2025. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
“The results were even more serious. The district-level CCP committee for discipline inspections challenged me about my thoughts and warned me not to leak any confidential information.
“What I didn’t expect was that the officer suddenly visited me about 10 days later. He asked about my views on the government and whether I knew foreigners. I was confused.”
Luo said the police warned him against violating national security laws.
After police visited, Luo tried to quit his job, citing depression and anxiety as the reason for his work, but he said the district’s HR and Social Security Bureau said he could not resign because he was on probation.
Published
After a CCP discipline inspection in the Zengcheng district and another visit from the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau Committee on May 20, 2024, he livestreamed Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok that night, airing his complaints, talking about his opposition to the abuse of statistics in the Bala district and agricultural law enforcement regulations. After about two hours the live stream was blocked. Luo’s account was blocked and he began to attract more attention from the police.
“The local Public Safety Bureau summoned me the following day. Before mentioning my livestream, they asked about two meetings in March 2022 and December 2023, and asked if what I said during the meeting was really my view.
“Then they questioned my state of mind… and when I spoke those words, I asked if I was in the right mind.”
Luo said he eventually signed the document under pressure and admitted that he was not in the right state of mind.
“They threatened me: “You are not in a good mental state. If you don’t sign this, or you don’t acknowledge that the contents of the meeting are confidential, I can get a doctor to establish your mental state.
On June 15th, 2011, the riot police patrol abandoned the street after several days of riots in Zhenchen, Guangdong Province, China. STR/AFP via Getty Images
Luo said he needs to submit a monthly report on his thoughts to the police and video chat with the police every week.
He decided to run.
In July 2024, he arrived in the United States and declared that he would cut all ties with CCP-related organizations.
Speaking of the differences in life in China and the US, he told the Epoch Times: “The most important difference is that people are treated as humans (in the United States) (here) people are voting citizens, have freedom of speech and can live like humans.
Luo said he continued to contact him after his former employer and police left China, trying to persuade his mother to return to the country.
Zengcheng District Bara did not respond to Epoch Times’ request for comment.
Jang Chin contributed to this report.
