On June 29, environmental volunteer Huo Jiangpo was administratively detained for 9 days by the Kenli Branch of the Dongying Public Security Bureau in Shandong Province. The penalty decision showed that the reason for the penalty was “fabricating facts to disturb public order.”
On June 30, fellow volunteer Mr. Xie told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that at around 5:00 on June 29, he and three others including Huo Jiangpo were filming a suspected sewage discharge problem at a pharmaceutical factory when they were taken away by police from the Xinglong Police Station of the Kenli Branch of the Dongying Public Security Bureau in Shandong Province. At around 9:00 p.m. that day, he and another volunteer Mr. Liu came out of the police station, but Huo Jiangpo was detained.
Mr. Xie stated the cause of the incident. Mr. Xie said that in May this year, Huo Jiangpo received clues from the masses that Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., located in Kenli District, Dongying, Shandong Province, was suspected of polluting the environment. In response, Huo Jiangpo went to the vicinity of the company and used a drone to shoot a video of suspected sewage discharge from a seepage pit in the company’s factory area. Subsequently, Huo Jiangpo posted the video on multiple social platforms to reflect the incident.
Mr. Xie said that shortly after Huo Jiangpo posted the video, the relevant departments of Dongying City responded on the social platform that “after investigation, Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. did not pollute the environment.” But Huo Jiangpo still doubted this response. “The videos posted by Huo Jiangpo on his social media account have all been removed.” Mr. Xie said.
In the early morning of June 29, Huo Jiangpo and Mr. Xie and three others went to the vicinity of Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., preparing to fly the drone again to collect evidence. Soon, the company’s employees found them and called the police. The police from the Xinglong Police Station in the jurisdiction took the three of them away.
An “Administrative Penalty Decision” provided by Mr. Xie shows that the public security organs have found that since May 14, 2025, Huo Jiangpo has posted videos titled “Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is seriously polluting the environment” on social media such as “Tik Tok”, “Kuaishou”, “Xiaohongshu”, “Sina Weibo”, “Bilibili”, and “Toutiao”. After investigation by the Kenli Branch of the Dongying Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau, it was concluded that the behavior of Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. discharging sewage through infiltration pits was untrue. After that, Huo Jiangpo continued to publish articles and pictures titled “Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. has serious environmental pollution” on social platforms such as “WeChat Official Account”, “Sina Weibo”, “NetEase News”, and “Today’s Headlines”.
The penalty decision stated that the above facts were confirmed by Huo Jiangpo’s statements and defenses, Mr. Liu and Mr. Xie’s statements, and the statements of the reporter, and other evidence. The facts are clear and the evidence is conclusive. In summary, Huo Jiangpo’s illegal behavior of fabricating facts to disturb public order was established. According to Article 25 (1) of the “Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the People’s Republic of China”, it is decided to impose an administrative penalty of nine days of administrative detention on Huo Jiangpo. The execution period is from June 29, 2025 to July 8, 2025.
The “Administrative Penalty Decision” is stamped with the official seal of the Kenli Branch of the Dongying Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the signing time is June 29, 2025.
On June 30, Mr. Xie said that he and Mr. Liu have returned to their place of residence safely, and Huo Jiangpo is being held in a local detention center.
Tianyancha shows that Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (formerly known as Shandong Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) was established in 1998 and is a member of Xinfa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., located in Dongying City, Shandong Province. It is an enterprise mainly engaged in agricultural and sideline food processing. On December 3, 2015, the company was administratively punished by the Kenli County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for suspected false propaganda; on March 8, May 19 (twice), and July 14, 2016, the company was administratively punished 4 times by the ecological environment department for suspected environmental pollution.
On March 17, 2021, Ding Jianmin, director of the Dongying Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau, said in the “Public Service Hotline” program that Kenli Xinfa Pharmaceutical produces odor and pollutes the environment. Upon investigation, it was found that the recent construction and commissioning of sewage treatment facilities in the old factory area of Xinfa Pharmaceutical produced odor. The odor in the new plant mainly comes from the unorganized links of waste gas, the backhaul and leakage of materials in the production process. At present, the Kenli District Branch of the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau has hired experts to carry out on-site odor investigation work, and established a rectification ledger and a deadline for rectification for the problems found. In the next step, the company will be supervised to rectify the problems.
On November 15, 2023, residents complained about the irritating odor around the company at night. After investigation by the environmental protection department, the odor came from the vitamin E acetate workshop of the Xinfa New Factory. The workshop is currently in the commissioning period and there are leakages, especially at the exhaust fan. Law enforcement officers require Xinfa staff to repair the leakage points as soon as possible and control the odor while ensuring safety.
According to the environmental impact assessment report of the company’s 500 tons/year waste self-treatment and recycling project, the project is newly built with a total investment of 6 million yuan, including 1.5 million yuan in environmental protection investment, covering an area of 1,930 square meters. The project plans to purchase a set of precious metal recovery special oxidation furnaces equipped with 3 pyrolysis carbonization furnaces, and build a 1t/h waste heat boiler. The waste gas will be discharged through the existing 40m high hazardous waste incinerator exhaust pipe after SNCR denitration + waste heat recovery + quenching + bag dust collector + activated carbon adsorption + water seal voltage stabilization + alkaline deacidification (relying on existing hazardous waste incineration facilities) + SCR denitration (relying on existing hazardous waste incineration facilities, standby). The workshop waste after high-temperature burning is purified and prepared as catalysts based on the existing processing room, and the final catalysts are all used by the enterprise. After the completion of this project, the comprehensive waste treatment capacity of 500t/a can be achieved. The main environmental impacts include water pollutants, air pollutants, solid waste, noise, etc. Among them, for water pollutants, domestic sewage, deacidification wastewater, soft water preparation concentrated water, boiler sewage, tray cleaning wastewater, experimental equipment cleaning wastewater, and experimental wastewater are treated in the factory sewage treatment station and discharged into the Kenli Economic Development Zone Sewage Treatment Plant through a special pipe.
