China: True or false? A fugitive sergeant’s diary · Global Voices
Meng Zhang

Scheming frame-up, unlawful arrest and bitter escape journey, it’s not the story line of the new season of Prison Break , but a Chinese Police Sergeant’s unbelievable experience against his corrupt superior officer. Since the end of August, a post named “A fugitive sergeant’s diary” has flared and spread among many different Chinese blogs, BBSs and online communities, and finally even attracted attention of the mainstream media, including Xinhua News Agency, the official press agency of the government.
Yang Xiaodong (阳晓东), the alleged author of the diary, who proclaimed himself the Criminal Police Commander of Huangchuan County, Henan Province, disclosed a sequence of events that how the higher-ups of the local police intrigued with the gangsters against him for his continuous exposure of their underground crimes, and how he escaped from the house arrest, hiding himself in the mountains and running from one place to another.
A note at the beginning of the diary (excerpt):
…我是河南省潢川县公安局刑警大队长阳晓东。2008年3月份以来，我先后以《警徽下的罪恶》和《一个全国先进公安局的锐变》两文揭露潢川县公安局副局长邬晓辉的违法犯罪及潢川县公安局的多起渎职犯罪，这两文我都是署真名给河南省纪委、信阳市委书记王铁、县委书记焦豫汝、信阳市人民检察院、河南省人民检察院、市纪委、公安部反映过，领导的批示都陆续转到信阳市公安局纪委，4月31号信阳市公安局纪委副书记胡永斌等调查人员到潢川县调查，5月7号就查明了邬晓辉私开赌场，暴力阻碍派出所干警执法一案，但调查组突然中断调查，并给我答复“领导安排暂时不查其他案件”
…I am Yang Xiaodong (阳晓东), the Criminal Police Commander of Huangchuan County, Henan Province. Since March, 2008, I have successively written two reports, The Evil under the Police Badge and A National Advanced Public Security Bureau's Metamorphosis , exposing the illegal activities of Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉), the Deputy Director General of Public Security Bureau of Huangchuan County, and malfeasance of the whole department. With my real name, I sent the two reports to Henan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, Wang Tie (王铁), Secretary of Xinyang Municipal Committee of the CPC, Jiao Yuru (焦豫汝), Secretary of County Committee of the CPC, People's Procuratorate of Xinyang city, People's Procuratorate of Henan Province, Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, and the Ministry of Public Security of Xinyang city. Then the instructions issued by the leadership were in succession relayed to the Commission for Discipline Inspection of Xinyang Public Security Bureau. April 31 a group of investigators, including Hu Yongbin (胡永斌), the Deputy Secretary of Commission for Discipline Inspection of Xinyang Public Security Bureau, arrived Hungchuan County and on May 7 they had found out the case that Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉) illegally ran gambling house, violently obstructing the work of the police. However, the investigating team suddenly stopped their work and told me “The leadership have instructed the investigations of the other cases are suspended”
随后，我举报的多起案件被泄密。由于我举报的案件涉及黑恶势力，涉及地方公安机关弄虚作假贪污国家财政经费以及多起骇人听闻的渎职犯罪遭到了被举报人邬晓辉、涉案的公安机关、被举报的黑恶势力的疯狂的打击报复：“黑道”上匿名电话威胁；“白道”上邬晓辉更是利用侦查权对我手机、住宅及社会关系实施监控，同时又找说客谈条件：“只要不继续告可以给50万元”，期间邬晓辉更是利用金钱和多种社会关系摆平了各级领导的批示。直至现在，邬晓辉及涉案的黑恶势力成员都没有得到处理。信阳市检察院副检察长李洪卫亲口给我说：“阳队长，你一定要注意安全，不是我们不查，有难言之隐”…
Subsequently, many cases I reported were deliberately leaked out. Because those cases were related to the criminal underworld, the embezzlement of the public security organs and horrible dereliction of duty, Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉), the involved public security organs and criminal forces began their crazy revenge on me. The “black world” threatened me by anonymous calls, while the “white world” Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉) took advantage of his powers to monitor my cell phone, house and social relationships, and in the meantime sent lobbyist to buy me off, “As long as you drop the charges you can have 500 thousand yuan (73 068.5 US dollars)”. Moreover, Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉) greased the palm of the leadership at all levels by cash and various relationships. Until now, Wu Xiaohui and the relevant criminal forces haven't got any punishment. Li Hongwei, the deputy chief procurator of Xinyang People's Procuratorate, personally said to me, “Sergeant Yang, you should pay attention to your safety. It is not that we don't want to look into those things. We are just powerless”…
…7月25日夜11时许，潢川县公安局局长润道宏通知我到党委会议室谈话，我如约到达了党委会议室，时有市公安局纪委副书记胡永斌、市纪委一室工作人员周启新，他们佯装询问我举报一事，突然涌进10余名武警，10余名市局派来的警察将我团团围住，随即周启新便说代表市纪委对我“双规”…
…Around 11 p.m. of July 25, Run Daohong (润道宏), the Director General of Public Security Bureau of Huangchuan County, told me to go to the assembly room of Party committee to have a talk. I showed up on time. While Hu Yongbin (胡永斌), the Deputy Secretary of Commission for Discipline Inspection of Xinyang Public Security Bureau and Zhou Qixin (周启新), official of the  Municipal Commission for Discipline, were pretending to inquire into the reporting affairs, about 10 armed policemen broke in and completely surrounded me; with that, Zhou Qixin (周启新) announced that he representing the Municipal Commission for Discipline executed “Shuanggui” on me…
…由于是莫须有，我拒绝在双规决定书上签字，并拒绝配合双规措施，他们把我拖进一辆大巴里秘密从潢川县公安局抓走。由于这次迫害明显是以夺取我的生命，对我封口而来的，因此我选择了必须逃亡。8月1号我从双规关押地逃走，8月2号潢川县公安局非法将我通缉上网，8月3号以来潢川县黑恶势力经邬晓辉安排已派二批杀手赴上海、北京等地寻机对我暗杀，我的生命安全已处在极度危险之中。为唤起警察的良心，为追求法律的公平、公正，我已做好了牺牲的准备，同时我将举报信原文及逃亡日记在网上发布，一旦遭遇不测也可作为证据使用。我更相信千百万网友的声音可以呐喊出正义、公平、民主和进步，可以震慑贪、腐，让我们共勉吧！
… Because the charge was unwarranted, I denied signing in the judgment and further cooperating. They dragged me into a van and secretly moved me out of the police station. Obviously, they were trying to seal my lips and take my life, so I had to choose escape. August 1 I broke out of the house where I was detained; August 2 the Huangchuan Public Security Bureau illegally listed me as wanted; Since August 3, Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉) with the criminal forces of Huangchuan county has sent two groups of killers to Shanghai, Beijing etc. to assassinate me. My life is in extreme danger. To arouse the police's ethical conscience and stand firm for the justice and fairness, I have been ready to sacrifice myself. Meanwhile, I have published the letter of accusation and my fugitive diary on the Internet. Once I suffer from misfortune, those materials can also be used as evidence. What's more, I believe the voice of millions of netizens will bring justice, fairness, democracy and social progress, and face the corruption and malversation down. Let's encourage each other!
Up to now, Sergeant Yang's fugitive diary has been updated from July 26, the first day of the house arrest, to August 13 when he fled to Fuyang, a city in Anhui Province. Because of the massive reproductions among the blogs and BBSs, no one knows exactly where Yang published his diary or whether there is someone else who helped him do the updating work.  Even so, according to 3 blogs (Links: 1, 2, 3) which many bloggers linked to, It's very likely that the diary was firstly packaged into one post and then updated in different blogs every 6 or 8 days. All the 3 blogs were established in Blogger and dressed by black style.
Although Sergent Yang's legendary and tragic experience has won most Chinese netizen's strong support and deep sympathy, an inescapable question naturally arouse before everyone concerned. Is it true? Will the story maker behind the curtain suddenly jump out and exaltedly shouted that you are fooled? To avoid that situation, some cautious netizens began to further investigate the information revealed by the diary. Surprisingly the officials mentioned do exist, and Wu Xiaohui (邬晓辉), the most important role in Yang's depiction, was even found in the official website of Huangchuan County.
Da Dida, a blogger in bullog.cn, through web cache collected more to prove Sergeant Yang's identity:
google.cn提供的“潢川县公安局领导 阳晓东”的查询结果截图
The screenshot of the search results of “The officer of Huanchuan Public Security Bureau Yang Xiaodong (阳晓东)” by google.cn
潢川县政务门户网站提供的潢川县公安局部门领导（http://www.huangchuan.gov.cn/showpage.asp?id=71）截图
The screenshot of the leadership list of Huangchuan Public Security Bureau from the official website of Huangchuan government （http://www.huangchuan.gov.cn/showpage.asp?id=71）
google缓存提供的潢川县政务门户网站曾经发布的潢川县公安局部门领导在 2008年8月22日 16:29:38 GMT 的快照截图
The previous leadership list of Huangchuan Public Security Bureau provided by the official website of Huangchuan government. The screenshot was taken at 16:29:38 GMT, August 22， 2008 by google cache.
According to the screenshots in Da Dida's blog, it's clearly that until August 22 Yang Xiaodong (阳晓东), the name of the fugitive sergeant was still in the leadership list of Huangchuan Public Security Bureau. (Somehow the link of Google cache has been updated to August 31 now, but Baidu cache also saved a similar screenshot which can prove Yang's identity)
A report published Thursday by CCVIC has further proved Sergeant's Yang's diary, but it also discovered a totally new edition of the same story, which again made the whole thing much more complicated.