In early July 2022, during the investigation of the “5·25 Special Case,” police in Xinle City, Hebei Province, detained ten people from Gaoyi County — including villager Bao Qinrui, his relatives, and neighbors — under “Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location” (RSDL). On July 20, Bao Qinrui was brutally tortured to death during interrogation.
According to the conclusion of the Judicial Forensic Center of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Bao’s cause of death was acute cardiopulmonary failure due to pulmonary thromboembolism, resulting from prolonged immobilization, repeated mechanical trauma, and electric shock injuries — clear medical evidence of death caused by torture.
In September 2025, the Lianchi District Court of Baoding convicted eleven police officers involved in the case — several for torture to extract confession, and those who inflicted the fatal violence for intentional injury resulting in death.
Torture and Death in 21st-Century Chinese Justice
“A cop who doesn’t use force during interrogation is a coward.”
— Statement from one of the officers on trial
Court documents and media disclosures revealed that many of the individuals held under “RSDL” were subjected to severe beatings, electric shocks, and cruel physical abuse of various kinds.
Bao Qinrui was restrained for long periods in a metal interrogation chair, cutting off blood circulation in his legs and causing deep vein thrombosis that ultimately led to his death. His death was not accidental — it was the direct result of prolonged torture.
The methods of torture included:
- beating and slapping,
- the use of a “hand-crank telephone” (a device for electric shocks),
- electrocution of the genitals,
- whipping the soles of the feet with PVC pipes,
- forcing the victim into the “flying position” (bent at a 90-degree angle for long periods), and
- confinement in an iron cage, forcing painful postures for extended durations.
“He forced me to kneel on the bathroom floor, open my mouth, took out his genitals, urinated into my mouth, and even made me lick his anus.”
— Testimony from Bao Jiye, a relative of the victim
In addition to the torture that took place in the Xinle Hotel, the victims were also taken outside to be “worked on” — a euphemism for more violent torture sessions.
Other detainees in the same case also suffered bone fractures and extensive soft tissue injuries. After the killing, officers deleted chat logs and surveillance footage (some secretly preserved by conscientious insiders) and destroyed torture devices. These details have made the case one of the most shocking examples of death by police torture in recent years.
Judicial Darkness
Many Chinese netizens mockingly call such torture “The Great Memory Recovery Technique”, referring ironically to the “help” that police give suspects to “recall” their confessions through violence.
Public opinion widely believes that this is not merely individual misconduct but a systemic and pervasive practice deeply ingrained in China’s law enforcement culture.
There are countless variations of such torture: depriving suspects of sleep for days, forcing them to squat half-bent for hours, exposing them nearly naked to freezing air conditioning, withholding food and water, using induced confessions (promising leniency), deceptive confessions, or even threatening family members to break the suspect’s will.
“They called in inmates to beat me… One said, ‘I’ll write a confession for you — just copy it.’ I refused, so they beat me until I couldn’t get out of bed. Later, a man claiming to be the provincial public security director took away the written statement as ‘evidence,’ and then three others came in to beat me again.”
— From the 2024 Zhang Uncle-Nephew Case
In China, criminal suspects have virtually no human rights. Lawyers are often barred from being present, and even when allowed, they are expected to “cooperate with the police” — a complete mockery of judicial fairness.
The Design of the System
Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long shouted slogans about “governing the country according to law,” in essence, it never takes the law seriously.
In China, law is a weapon to control citizens, not a restraint upon those in power.
The true core of the rule of law lies in limiting power, not in using power to enforce law.
In a centralized authoritarian system, law enforcement, the judiciary, and oversight bodies are all under the same leadership — sometimes literally the same person. In such a context, how can there be any meaningful external check on power?
When the judiciary lacks independence and supervision remains trapped within administrative hierarchies, the law becomes nothing more than ritualized theater.
The death of Bao Qinrui exposes this structural contradiction: when a person’s fate lies entirely within the opaque confines of an interrogation room, so-called “rule of law” is nothing but a performance on stage.
Epilogue
After Bao Qinrui’s death, all his relatives were released. The judicial notice declared that they “should not be pursued for formal responsibility” — meaning, they might not have been guilty at all.