CHP Cracks Smuggling Case

CHP: China Heritage Update 2 Dec 2005

Last month, a middle level court in Jin Hua City, Zhejiang Province, began to pass sentence in the case of the Canadian Zhu Chunlin, and the Chinese Zhu Xiaogang, Yu Yanjun, Yu Lichun, Chen Zhigen, and Cao Guangjun, who are accused of smuggling and reselling at a profit 2925 fossil pieces.

This gang was formed is 2003. In April and October of that year, Zhu Chunlin and Zhu Xiaogang purchased from Yu Yanjun and Yu Lichun fossils that they had illegally collected, and in December of that year concealed them for smuggling to America in a container packed with carved tree stumps and exotic eroded stones.

In April of 2004, Zhu Chunlin and the others one after another bought up a lot of these fossils and put them in Chen Zhigen’s workshop for carving of tree stumps and awaited an opportunity to get them out of the country. Later that year, on 1 November, Chen Zhigen and the rest of them, as they were smuggling them out in a shipping container, the fossils were detected by Jin Hua customs officials. Another eight items that they attempted to export through the postal system were seized by Shanghai customs officials.

In September of the same year, Yu Yanjun carried fossils that he had illegally acquired and sold them. Eighty-one of these fossils were detected by Shanghai customs authorities as the smugglers mailed them through the postal system, but the remainder evaded detection and were mailed out of the country.

According to Chinese law, selling of the types of fossils that Zhu and his associates were handling is a criminal offense, the maximum penalty for which is ten years prison sentence; for the smuggling of these fossils, the maximum sentence is the death penalty.

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center’s “hotline” telephone service played a role in breaking this case, supplying details of the case and some legal advice. The hotline service was put in place two years ago, financed by a grant of funds from the Jim Thompson Foundation of Thailand, and the role the hot line and CHP’s training played in breaking this case is illustrative of the good use which the public makes of this hot line service of our Center.

CHP’s training in the Shanghai and Zhejiang areas has been particularly effective. CHP has conducted more than ten different training sessions in these two areas, with participation by more than 2,000 people, including students, neighborhood committees, government officials, police, and customs officials. As a result of these training sessions, there consciousness of cultural heritage protection has been raised, and they are able to identify activities that are destructive of cultural heritage. Many people now know about the CHP hotline service, and have noted down both the telephone number and the email address.

In the Zhu Chunlin case, the son of a worker in Chen Zhigen’s workshop had joined a CHP training session. Starting in January of 2004, they often contacted us by hot line telephone to report suspicious activities going on in the workshop. In the latter part of April of that year, as the illegal fossils were concealed in the workshop, they started to keep in daily contact with us, calling from safe places where they would not be exposed to possible retribution. On the one hand we advised them of precautions to ensure their safety, and one the other told them to keep gathering evidence of the smuggling. At the same time, we informed the police and notified a few trustworthy people in positions of authority so that they could keep an eye on the development of the case, until finally the arrests were made.

As for the fossils detected in the postal system, it had happened that CHP had been invited to conduct training by a Shanghai neighborhood committee. Participating in this session were a number of neighborhood organizations, including representatives of the local post office. Afterwards, the CHP hotline number was posted on the wall in the post office. When the postal officers noted these fossils being mailed to America, they tried calling the number. We told them to delay posting the materials, and immediately informed customs officers, who investigated and apprehended the culprits.

We shall be following the case closely to see what verdict is rendered and sentence passed by the court.

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP)
http://www.bjchp.org

Suite 2308, Building 5
East Zone 1, Tiantong Garden,
Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District,
Beijing, 102218, China
Telephone: +86 10 61768040, +86 13366082836
Email: information@bjchp.org