Businessman claims personal details were falsified
He Xianxiang has become a well-known figure on Chinese social media since he posted details of the 170,000 yuan ($24,630) fee he was charged for expert testimony in a civil dispute.
In 2015, the 47-year-old Yunnan province native was informed he was in breach of contract and was being sued at Chengdu Intermediate People's Court in Sichuan province.
He claims that when he reviewed the documents the court had sent, he realized his personal details had been falsified. "When I looked at the contract that accompanied the letter, I knew immediately that the signature, stamps and fingerprints had been forged. They were not mine," he said.
In 2012, He started an energy company with three colleagues in Sichuan. As a sleeping partner, He held 30 percent of the shares and did not participate in the company's management.
Later, one of the other shareholders told He the business was seeking funds because it was attempting to purchase another company.
In August 2013, He was told a bank loan had been arranged and his agreement was required. "At the time, I was in Yunnan, so a bank official visited and asked me to sign a contract agreeing to the loan," He said. "As a businessman, I knew it was not unusual and there was no problem with the procedure, so I provided my signature, seals and fingerprint," he said.
In 2014, He sold his shares and quit the company. However, he later received a letter from the court informing him that he was being sued for failing to comply with a clause in the contract that guaranted repayment of the loan.
According to He, the contract was not the one he had signed two years before, but under Chinese civil law, he is obliged to prove he didn't sign it, so he decided to employ independent assessors to verify that his details had been falsified.
That was the beginning of his ongoing dispute with the third-party institute.