A Canadian citizen detained in China since 2019

尊敬的中华人民共和国国务院总理李强：
尊敬的加拿大总理马克·卡尼：

我叫李昂，出生于河北石家庄，上世纪九十年代随家人移居加拿大。我的父亲李勇会是一名在河北扎根三十年的企业家，他长期在祖国投资、工作，怀着对家乡和国家的热爱与责任感。三十年来，他依法经营，累计纳税超十七亿元，创造数千个就业岗位，首创国内货运卡车分期付款模式，为地方经济和社会发展作出了实实在在的贡献。

父亲李勇会自1994年创建开元金融以来，专注服务中小微实体经济，从未涉足高利贷、校园贷、现金贷等不合规业务。创立“轻易贷”平台时，我们以高于国家互联网管理办法的标准稳健控险，服务实体。2019年党中央、国务院出台P2P“良性退出”政策，公司第一时间坚决拥护并申请平稳退出。事实证明，这是习总书记英明领导下党中央科学防控风险的典范。遗憾的是，河北省金融办未落实中央精神，强行关停平台，致资金链断裂、八万出借人受损，国家与人民利益蒙受严重损害。2019年12月13日，父亲和公司员工被河北省石家庄公安突然拘捕，从那天起，我们一家人陷入了无尽的黑暗。

在被捕之前，父亲已多次实名举报河北省金融办和石家庄市政府在“轻易贷”P2P平台的合规检查中不依法行政、不遵守中央政策，忽视企业经营风险，对公司实施严重不合理、过度、重复的审查。面对这些举报，父亲没有等来依法的处理，等来的却是时任省委书记王东峰签批的逮捕令。

在抓捕李勇会及员工之后，相关部门很快发现并无任何犯罪事实或证据，但为了掩盖早期的错误，反而阻碍案件正常审理。王东峰离任后，仍持续干预案件。现任省委书记倪岳峰自上任三年多以来，收到了我们家属上百封信，却可能因顾虑前任而选择沉默，案件至今无审无判。河北的司法机关、检察院、法院仿佛都在等待政治信号，而不是遵循法律程序。

更严重的是，部分前任及现任地方领导为了掩盖他们在案件中的错误，不向中央报告真实情况，反而试图将责任推给中央政府，让中央为他们的失职背锅。这不仅损害了党中央依法治国的权威，也严重破坏了人民对法治的信任。

我们的诉求极为简单：我们相信中国法律，也相信中央政府。我们是热爱祖国、热爱家乡的海外华人家庭，多年来为国家建设作出贡献。我们恳请李强总理能够亲自关注此案，督促河北依法办案——有罪判罪，无罪放人；若仍需调查，请依法批准取保候审，让父亲重获自由和尊严的工作生活环境。

在中国新的刑事诉讼法实施四十多年来，全中国是否还有一例案件，在法官从未询问被告、从未开庭审理、不知有罪与否的情况下，将一位企业家关押五年十个月之久？这样的现实，不仅挑战法律的底线，也触碰了社会的良知。

卡尼总理，我的父亲李勇会是加拿大公民，入籍已二十五年。他在中国河北省被个别地方官员非法羁押长达五年十个月，权利遭受严重侵犯。我们清楚地知道，这一案件并非中国政府的问题，更不是河北省委、省政府整体的问题，而是省委个别领导为掩盖自身错误，滥用职权、误导中央所致。

我们对中国政府怀有深厚的信任与敬意。我们相信，李强总理一旦了解案件真相，一定会依法、公正地处理此案，让父亲早日重获自由，并通过他在看守所艰苦条件下研究筹划的“星元计划”，为中加两国的经济与科技合作作出前所未有的贡献。

我们一家人仍怀着希望，恳请两国总理本着人道、正义与法治精神，携手关注这一被长期掩盖的案件，让正义不再沉默，让真相早日回归。

此致

敬礼！

李昂

2025年10月13日

The Honorable Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China
The Honorable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada

My name is Spencer Li. I was born in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, and emigrated to Canada with my family in the 1990s. My father, Yonghui Li, is an entrepreneur who has built his businesses in Hebei for thirty years, investing and working out of love and responsibility for his hometown. Over three decades, he has operated in full compliance with the law, paid more than 1.7 billion RMB in taxes, created thousands of jobs, pioneered China’s installment-finance model for freight trucks, and made concrete contributions to local economic and social development.

Since founding Kaiyuan Finance in 1994, my father has focused on serving the real economy—especially small and micro businesses—and has never engaged in illicit businesses such as usury, campus loans, or cash loans. When he launched the Qingyidai platform, we adopted risk controls stricter than national internet-finance rules, always aiming to support the real economy. In 2019, when the Party Central Committee and the State Council introduced the policy for the “orderly exit” of P2P lending platforms, our company promptly and firmly supported it and applied for an orderly wind-down and transition. This proved to be a model of prudent risk control under the wise leadership of General Secretary Xi and the Party Central Committee.

Regrettably, the Hebei Provincial Financial Bureau failed to carry out the central directives. It forcibly shut down the platform, causing a funding break, losses to 80,000 lenders, and serious harm to the interests of the state and the people. On December 13, 2019, my father and company employees were suddenly taken into custody by Shijiazhuang Public Security in Hebei. From that day forward, our family fell into unending darkness.

Before his arrest, my father had repeatedly filed official complaints against the Hebei Provincial Financial Office and the Shijiazhuang Municipal Government for failing to administer according to law during the compliance inspections of the Qingyidai P2P platform—disregarding central policy, ignoring business-operation risks, and subjecting the company to severe, unreasonable, and repetitive reviews. In response to these reports, he did not receive lawful handling; instead, what came was an arrest warrant approved by then Provincial Party Secretary Wang Dongfeng.

After detaining Yonghui Li and his employees, the relevant authorities quickly found no criminal facts or evidence. Yet to cover up earlier mistakes, they obstructed the normal adjudication of the case. Even after Wang Dongfeng left office, he continued to interfere in the case. Since taking office more than three years ago, the current Provincial Party Secretary Ni Yuefeng has received hundreds of letters from our family, but—perhaps out of concern about offending his predecessor—has chosen silence. To this day there has been no hearing and no verdict. Hebei’s public-security, procuratorial, and judicial organs seem to be waiting for a political signal instead of following legal procedure.

What is worse, some former and current local leaders, to hide their own errors in this case, have failed to report the truth to the central authorities and have instead tried to shift blame onto the central government, making Beijing shoulder responsibility for their dereliction. This not only undermines the authority of the Party Central Committee’s rule-of-law governance, but also gravely damages the people’s trust in the law.

Our requests are very simple: we trust China’s laws and we trust the central government. We are an overseas Chinese family that loves China and our hometown and has contributed to national development for many years. We implore Premier Li Qiang to personally look into this case and urge Hebei to handle it according to law—convict if there is guilt; release if there is none. If investigation must continue, please approve release on bail pending trial in accordance with the law, so that my father can regain his freedom and a dignified environment in which to live and work.

In the more than forty years since China’s current Criminal Procedure Law took effect, is there any other case nationwide where—without a judge ever questioning the accused, without any court hearing, and without any finding of guilt or innocence—an entrepreneur has been detained for five years and ten months? Such a reality not only pushes the limits of the law but also offends the conscience of society.

Prime Minister Carney, my father Yonghui Li is a Canadian citizen and has been naturalized for twenty-five years. He has been illegally held by certain local officials in Hebei Province for five years and ten months, with his rights gravely violated. We are fully aware that this case is not a problem of the Chinese government as a whole, nor of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee or Provincial Government as a whole. It stems from a few provincial leaders who, to cover up their own mistakes, abused their power and misled the central authorities.

We hold deep trust and respect for the Chinese government. We believe that once Premier Li Qiang learns the truth, he will handle the case lawfully and fairly, enabling my father to regain his freedom as soon as possible and to contribute—through the new business plans he has been researching and formulating under harsh detention conditions—unprecedented value to China–Canada economic and technological cooperation.

We as a family still hold on to hope. We implore the two prime ministers, in the spirit of humanity, justice, and the rule of law, to jointly bring attention to this long-suppressed case—so that justice will no longer be silent and the truth may soon prevail.

Respectfully,

Spencer Li
October 13, 2025