On July 2 and 3 in Xi’an, Shaanxi, as residents continued arriving to lay flowers at the Sage Digital Mall, authorities treated the gatherings as a major threat, deploying large numbers of police to intercept people nearby. One delivery rider, found simply carrying flowers on a street far from the mall’s entrance, was surrounded by nine people — six police officers, two chengguan officers, and one unidentified man.
Workers Strike Over Unpaid Wages at Sichuan Highland Disease Research Project in Aba (July 1, 2026)
On July 1, in Mao County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, workers went on collective strike over unpaid wages at the Sichuan University West China Hospital Highland Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Base project, being built by Huaxi No. 12 Construction Engineering Company.
“Petitioning New Regulations” Take Effect, Beijing Launches Mass Expulsion of Petitioners (July 1–3, 2026)
From July 1 to 3, following the formal implementation of so-called “new petitioning regulations” aimed at restricting petitioners from coming to Beijing, Chinese Communist Party authorities deployed large numbers of police over several consecutive days to arrest petitioners at sites including the Ministry of Public Security’s Public Complaints Reception Office and the National Bureau of Letters and Calls for Visits. Petitioners sleeping rough near bridges and along the Yongding River close to the Bureau of Letters and Calls were also driven out. More than a dozen petitioners from Dalian were seized in a coordinated operation by plainclothes police from their hometown and forcibly loaded onto a minibus.
Xi’an Sino-Gems Plaza Multi-Million-Yuan Fine Drives Company Chairman to His Death; Family and Employees Seeking Answers Suppressed by Police (July 1, 2026)
At midday on July 1, in Xiaozhai Sino-Gems International Shopping Center in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Yan Peng, chairman of Xi’an Lihe Trading Co., Ltd., fell to his death from the seventh floor of the mall. After the incident, Sino-Gems staff removed the body without authorization, prompting anger from family members, employees, and online observers, who gathered for an extended protest in the plaza outside. Authorities eventually deployed a large number of police to forcibly clear the scene and detained several people.
Woman in Dongyang, Zhejiang Protests with Megaphone After Neighbor Tortures Her Cat to Death (June 30, 2026)
On June 30, in Dongyang, Zhejiang, after her cat accidentally wandered into a neighbor’s home and was tortured to death by the neighbor, a woman held a sustained protest outside the neighbor’s building, speaking through a megaphone.
Construction Workers in Langfang, Hebei Eat and Sleep at Sales Office While Demanding Wages (June 29–30, 2026)
On June 29 and 30, at the Yuanyang Guanghua City development in Guangyang District, Langfang, Hebei, construction workers ate and slept at the sales office for two consecutive days in an effort to get their wages paid.
Property Owners Suppressed by Police While Seeking Deeds in Chenzhou, Woman Dragged on the Ground (June 30, 2026)
On June 30, in Yizhang County, Chenzhou, Hunan, owners at Dahan Times Plaza were arrested by police simply for going to the local government to request their property deeds. One female owner was violently dragged along the ground.
Villagers escalate rights campaign in Shantou, hundreds besiege officials and occupy village committee for days (June 26–July 1, 2026)
On June 26, after a month of continuous sit-in protests, villagers in Lincuo Village, Waisha Subdistrict, Longhu District, Shantou, Guangdong, escalated their campaign, occupying the village committee building for several consecutive days and at one point surrounding the village Party secretary and a Waisha Subdistrict official. As of July 1, the villagers’ campaign was still ongoing.
The dispute traces back to late May, when Lincuo villagers discovered that their household registration status had been changed from agricultural to non-agricultural without their knowledge or consent. Many were initially surprised, but as word spread, more villagers grew suspicious and angry. They came to see the change not as an unexpected benefit but as a calculated maneuver: the village’s land had already been sold off in full by local authorities and the village committee, and the reclassification was designed to strip villagers of their status as “members of a rural collective economic organization” — the status needed to question what had happened to the land — foreclosing any future accountability. Villagers said the village had not allocated homestead land in 46 years, and one family of seven was still living in a 33-square-meter house.
Starting May 26, villagers launched collective action, petitioning at the village committee and subdistrict office and holding sustained rallies and sit-ins outside the village committee building. Their demands: restoration of agricultural household registration status, investigation into the suspected illegal sale of land, return of collective land, and public disclosure of how the land was disposed of and where the proceeds went.
On the morning of June 26, after a full month of protest, Waisha Subdistrict officials and the village Party secretary issued a response to villagers’ demands at the protest site. The response appeared comprehensive but sidestepped villagers’ four core demands entirely. It addressed the household registration code, tuition subsidy policy, land survey data, and a homestead allocation plan, but offered no substantive answer on the questions villagers cared about most — accountability for who sold the land and where the money went, and their immediate concerns over housing and restoration of registration status. Instead, it conveyed an attitude that procedural compliance was sufficient and no accountability was required.
After the response, tensions on the ground quickly escalated. Nearly a thousand villagers surrounded the village committee office building, trapping the village Party secretary and a Waisha Subdistrict official inside for an extended period; the officials did not leave until the following day.
In the early hours of June 27, physical clashes broke out between villagers and police.
As of July 1, villagers’ occupation of the village committee was continuing.
Bank of China Branch in Tieling, Liaoning Converts Depositor’s Savings Into Insurance Without Consent; Customer Protests Inside Bank (2026.06.29)
On June 29, a depositor at the Longshou branch of Bank of China in Tieling, Liaoning, staged a protest inside the bank after his savings were fraudulently converted into an insurance product. According to the depositor, he had been depositing 5,000 yuan per year at the branch, with the plan of depositing for five years and leaving the money for another five years, bringing his total principal to 25,000 yuan. The bank had promised he would receive 39,000 yuan when the ten-year term matured. When he went to withdraw the money, however, the bank was only willing to pay 30,000 yuan. It was only after pressing the issue that he learned his wife had been induced by bank staff to sign documents converting the 9,000-yuan difference into an insurance product. When his wife later sought redress from Ping An Life Insurance, the company said it would only compensate 4,000 yuan, and pressured her to sign documents by threatening that she would “get nothing at all” if she refused. His wife signed under duress.
Hangzhou Taxi Driver Breaks Down Facing Fine, Cries Out “I Don’t Want to Live Anymore” (2026.06.29)
On the evening of June 29, near Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, a taxi driver broke down after being pulled over by traffic police and told he faced a fine. He cried out “I don’t want to live anymore,” “I earn just 100 yuan a day,” and “my father-in-law has been lying in the ICU for eight months,” and refused to get out of the car.
