Part Two: Chivalrous Lawyer: Legal Rescue of the "Sea Palace"

3. Pioneer of "Citizen Suing Official"

In Chinese society, with its millennia-old tradition of officialdom, the spirit of chivalry is especially important for administrative litigation lawyers. The Administrative Procedure Law, enacted in 1989, was undoubtedly a milestone for China's rule of law progress. Even before that, Lawyer Wang Tengfeng had handled groundbreaking "citizen suing official" cases, though they were conducted in the form of civil lawsuits at the time. We detail this case here not only to gain deeper insight into the development of Lawyer Wang Tengfeng's chivalrous spirit but also to leave a vivid sample of grassroots legal practice in China during the early reform and opening-up period.

On August 12, 1986, shortly after the autumn equinox and the end of the summer fishing moratorium, six fishermen from the Shuanghe Production Team in Datong Town, Tongling County, Anhui Province, including Zhang Ziyu, followed their customary practice of setting up nets and screens in the Xiaoxin River waters to prepare for fishing as a sideline activity. At 5 p.m., staff from the Qingtong River Fishery Management Station arrived in a fishery patrol boat to carry out administrative law enforcement. They parked the boat among the fishermen's screens, attempting to stop them from continuing. Zhang Ziyu and the other five fishermen then engaged in a heated dispute with the fishery staff. The fishery management personnel confiscated several nets from the six fishermen, while the fishermen seized two gangplanks and a pole from the patrol boat. That evening, the fishery management staff abandoned the boat at the screen site and left, causing it to run aground the next day. Four days later, a joint investigation team composed of the Tongling County Fishery Bureau, public security, town government, and other relevant units arrived at the dispute site for inspection. After criticism and education by the investigation team, the local production team fishermen voluntarily removed the fishing gear placed in the river, and the six fishermen returned the two gangplanks and pole seized four days earlier. However, the county fishery bureau did not return the confiscated nets nor provide further explanation, and the six fishermen decided not to pursue the matter further.

　Figure 72: In 1986, fishermen from Datong Town, Tongling County, Anhui Province, held a dragon boat race on the Qingtong River.

Just as everyone thought the matter would be dropped, the Tongling County Fisheries Bureau issued an administrative penalty document on September 13, titled "No. 114," penalizing Zhang Ziyu and five other fishing households for defying fishery administration on August 12. The specific penalties included: 1. The six households must compensate 70% of the 259 yuan in direct economic losses caused by the fishery patrol boat running aground; 2. A fine of 40 yuan for Zhang Ziyu and 30 yuan for the production team leader; 3. In the future, the Shuanghe Second Production Team in Laozhen must obtain approval before setting up fish screens in Xiaoxin River.

As soon as the penalty decision was announced, it immediately sparked strong reactions from six fishermen including Zhang Ziyu, and the members of Shuanghe Production Team were also outraged by the county fishery bureau's decision. After failing to get results from local government departments, some open-minded members began seeking legal solutions. However, given that the opposing party was a local government functional department, coupled with the special social environment of the early reform and opening-up period after the Cultural Revolution, many senior lawyers in Tongling County and city were unwilling to take on this thorny case of a citizen suing the government. With no recourse, the six fishermen coincidentally found lawyer Wang Tengfeng, who was working at the Tongling County Legal Advisory Office. Wang Tengfeng, then in his twenties, patiently learned the facts of the case and, driven by an innate sense of justice, declared to the fishermen with righteous indignation: "The county fishery bureau's penalty against the fishermen is wrong! The legitimate rights of the fishermen should be upheld!" The excited six fishermen immediately asked Wang Tengfeng to act as their entrusted agent, and he, out of his sense of justice, gladly took the case. Thus, with Wang Tengfeng's help, led by fisherman Zhang Ziyu, the Shuanghe Production Team and Laozhen Production Team jointly filed an administrative lawsuit against the county fishery bureau—although there was no Administrative Procedure Law at the time, so it was filed under the name of "civil litigation."

Unexpectedly, resistance arose at the very start of the lawsuit. The presiding judge of the county court, the deputy head of the economic division who had previously been the director of the county grain and liquor factory, instinctively found the case difficult and troublesome from the outset, as there was no legal basis and it faced resistance from government departments. So the deputy judge reluctantly approached lawyer Wang Tengfeng, using both persuasion and coercion to "work" on him: "This case is very troublesome and offends the government. You're young and just starting out; it's better to drop it and have the parties withdraw the lawsuit. Suing the government is unwinnable!" Hearing the deputy judge's well-meaning advice, Wang Tengfeng felt a surge of chivalrous passion to defend justice and immediately responded with great righteousness: "Withdrawing the lawsuit is absolutely impossible! Regardless of winning or losing, since the people's rights have been infringed upon and they were penalized by the government, and they believe it doesn't match the facts and the government's penalty is wrong, then I am duty-bound to support them in suing. Everything will be decided by legal trial and judgment!" Firmly rejected by Wang Tengfeng, the deputy judge felt somewhat ashamed and also admired the young lawyer's tenacity for the law, so he had to brace himself to seriously handle this hot potato of a citizen-suing-government case.

To prepare for this unprecedented lawsuit, the young lawyer Wang Tengfeng consulted a large number of fishery management laws and regulations, gained extensive knowledge of fishery administration, consulted the court, and repeatedly visited the scene for investigations, amassing a wealth of detailed evidence. Wang Tengfeng also specifically drew a detailed schematic diagram of the positional relationship between the Qingtong River and the Xiaoxin River based on repeated on-site surveys, which he provided to the court to prove the legitimate rights of the six fishermen and the county fishery bureau's illegal administrative actions beyond its authority—this could be considered an early attempt at the so-called "visual litigation" technique now highly praised in the litigation lawyer community! Meanwhile, since this case was the first "citizen suing government" case in the Tongling area (and possibly one of the earliest such administrative dispute cases in the province or even the country), the court also took it very seriously. After accepting the lawsuit, the county court's president carefully reviewed the on-site survey schematic and related written opinions submitted by Wang Tengfeng before the trial, personally led the presiding judge to the dispute scene to re-investigate and verify the facts, and personally attended the trial to listen. Additionally, many local political and legal leaders, as well as the defendant county fishery bureau's director, also attended the hearing as observers. For a time, the small courtroom was packed tightly with people.

In court, lawyer Wang Tengfeng presented two points of agency opinion: 1. The Xiaoxin River is a tributary of the lower reaches of the Qingtong River, flowing through the areas of Laozhen and Shuanghe production teams in Datong Town, Tongling County. When the water is not high, it is basically not navigable with the main stream of the Qingtong River, forming a relatively independent water area. Moreover, as early as the "Four Fixes" in 1962 (referring to the policy implemented in the early 1960s that fixed labor, land, livestock, and farm tools for use by production teams), the management rights of the Xiaoxin River had already been assigned to the Laozhen and Shuanghe production teams of Datong Town. Additionally, in 1986, the Laozhen and Shuanghe production teams contracted the Xiaoxin River to six fishermen including Zhang Ziyu for fishing. This not only aligns with the natural condition of the Xiaoxin River as a relatively independent water area but also complies with Article 9 of the Constitution and the spirit of five Central Document No. 1s. 2. Historically, the people of the Laozhen and Shuanghe production teams had always had the habit of setting nets and screens in the river. Zhang Ziyu and the other six fishermen, during the post-autumn low-water non-closed fishing season, in waters where they had contracted management rights, setting nets and screens according to historical customs was lawful and reasonable. The Qingtong River Fishery Management Station, by exceeding its management scope, preventing Zhang Ziyu and the others from setting nets and screens, infringed on the legitimate rights of the production teams. Afterward, it made a decision requiring the plaintiffs to bear responsibility, compensate for losses, impose fines, and interfere with their normal production activities—this was unlawful!

The defendant county fishery bureau, finding itself at a disadvantage in court, was unwilling to give up. They seized on the fishermen's extreme behavior at the enforcement scene to "raise the stakes," trying to highlight and amplify the fishermen's alleged violent resistance, while consistently avoiding the issue of legality in the government's enforcement actions. But lawyer Wang Tengfeng remained calm under pressure. While insisting on the main point that the fishermen's legitimate rights could not be infringed upon or deprived, he also presented evidence in court one by one, exposing how the fishery management personnel had enforced the law brutally, roughly confiscated the fishermen's property, and then derelicted their duty, causing the fishery patrol boat to run aground. He clearly demonstrated to the court that the violent enforcement by the fishery management station personnel, exceeding their authority, was the root cause of the conflict and the fundamental reason for the direct economic losses. The defendant county fishery bureau fell into an even more passive position, and their defense lawyer was at a loss, even resorting to bluster in court, threatening the young Wang Tengfeng by saying that his open accusation of government illegality in court was slander and should be punished by law. But Wang Tengfeng did not back down. Thus, the case began in the morning, went through the court investigation phase, and only entered the court debate phase after the afternoon session resumed. The two sides engaged in a back-and-forth, tit-for-tat battle, going through seven rounds of intense confrontation and full debate, not stopping until nearly 8 p.m.

Although after the adjournment that day, the county fishery bureau mobilized local government and people's congress to intervene, because the evidence Wang Tengfeng had gathered was sufficient and his reasoning thorough, the court still set aside interference and fully adopted his views. Ultimately, on July 24, 1987, the Tongling County People's Court issued a first-instance judgment, supporting all the claims of the plaintiffs represented by Wang Tengfeng. It not only revoked the "Document No. 114" administrative penalty issued by the Tongling County Fishery Bureau, exempting the six fishermen including Zhang Ziyu and the production teams from administrative penalties, but also clarified in the judgment the management and use rights of the Shuanghe Production Team over the Xiaoxin River (Figures 73-76). Such a high-profile "citizen suing government" case, with a verdict favoring the "citizen" over the "government," was unacceptable to the county fishery bureau, which then submitted a 12-page appeal to the Tongling Intermediate People's Court. Wang Tengfeng made a tit-for-tat, well-reasoned rebuttal. The deputy judge of the Tongling County Court's economic division, who had initially tried to dissuade Wang Tengfeng, had long been moved by Wang's chivalrous spirit and meticulous work ethic during the case handling and had become Wang's "ally," firmly and enthusiastically supporting and encouraging him: "Don't fear the government's appeal; they won't win even if they appeal!" Ultimately, the Tongling Intermediate People's Court issued a final judgment on March 18, 1988, still finding that the county fishery bureau's penalty decision against the farmers "did not match the facts and lacked legal basis," and should be revoked according to law, thus upholding the outcome where the "citizen" won and the "government" lost! The perfect victory in this case not only set a typical successful precedent for "citizen suing government" in the area but also earned the young, inexperienced lawyer Wang Tengfeng a reputation for chivalrous bravery and wisdom, garnering widespread praise and discussion among the local public.

Figure 73: Page 1 of the Civil Judgment issued by Tongling County People's Court on July 24, 1987.

Figure 74: Page 2 of the Civil Judgment issued by Tongling County People's Court on July 24, 1987.

Figure 75: Page 3 of the Civil Judgment issued by Tongling County People's Court on July 24, 1987.

Figure 76: Page 4 of the Civil Judgment issued by Tongling County People's Court on July 24, 1987.

The first Administrative Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China was passed by the Second Session of the Seventh National People's Congress on April 4, 1989, about two to three years after the aforementioned case, and came into effect on October 1, 1990. This meant that when lawyer Wang Tengfeng represented six fishermen and their production team in an administrative lawsuit against the county fisheries bureau, the case could only be conducted within the framework of the Civil Procedure Law. The sole legal basis was Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the Civil Procedure Law (Trial Implementation) promulgated in 1982, which stated: "Administrative cases that the law stipulates shall be tried by the People's Courts shall be governed by the provisions of this Law." Without a specific procedural legal basis and with no precedents to follow, the then-young lawyer Wang Tengfeng, just over 20 years old, showed the fearless spirit of a newborn calf. Relying on a pioneering and innovative drive, a sense of justice to stand up for the weak, relentless efforts in evidence collection, in-depth study of legal grounds, and his emerging talent in courtroom debate, he finally won this highly asymmetrical lawsuit, securing fairness for ordinary citizens. This "citizen suing official" case not only caused a local sensation but also served as an excellent demonstration for promoting law-based government administration and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the people. Even on a national scale, it was groundbreaking, providing valuable practical experience for China's fledgling administrative litigation system. The case handled by Wang Tengfeng occurred more than a year earlier than the so-called first "farmer suing county magistrate" case, which was widely reported by the media and caused a national sensation—the case of Bao Zhengzhao suing Cangnan County People's Government of Zhejiang Province over the forced demolition of his house.

　　(待续)