“We are doing what the local government has encouraged, so why have we been accused of smuggling?” Zou Ye asked, still deeply puzzled to this day.
Zou’s husband, the owner of a logistics firm at the Menglian Port in southwestern province of Yunnan, was arrested together with four colleagues in September 2023 for allegedly smuggling goods under false trade declarations, a gray area that is coming under greater scrutiny with lengthy prison sentences for offenders.