Fan Mugen

Fan Mugen was born in 1949 and is a military veteran and farmer in Yanshan Village, Tong'an Town, Huqiu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu. Resisting unreasonable and coercive demolition, he was once forced to hide away from home for a month. On December 3, 2013, hired demolition thugs invaded his home to force relocation, brutally assaulting his family with iron rods. Fan suffered a bloody head wound, his son was beaten on the head, and his wife Gu Panzhen had her right arm broken. In this dire moment of life and death, the 64-year-old veteran grabbed a fruit knife in self-defense, fatally stabbing two violent assailants. Police arrested Fan on intentional injury charges, prompting over 4,000 citizens nationwide to petition for the release of 'Hero Fan', while prominent lawyers advocated for justifiable self-defense. In May 2015, the Suzhou Intermediate Court ruled that his actions exceeded necessary defense limits, sentencing him to eight years in prison—marking a landmark demolition case in China where a resisting homeowner avoided the death penalty. After serving six and a half years with sentence reductions, Fan was released early on June 2, 2020, welcomed home by villagers with firecrackers and flowers like a returning hero.