On 23 July 2021, Dr Chen Zijuan, human rights defender Chang Weiping's wife, and their young son, accompanied by a family-appointed lawyer and several friends, travelled to the Feng County Detention Centre, where the human rights defender is detained, to seek a meeting with him and to deposit money so he could purchase food and other daily items. Feng County is in a remote mountainous area in Baoji city, Shaanxi province, more than 1900km from the southern coastal city of Shenzhen where Dr Chen Zijuan and her son live. When they arrived at the detention centre and requested to deposit money for Chang Weiping, a police officer told them Chang Weiping's account has already exceeded the maximum limit of 1000 Yuan and that a detainee is not allowed to spend more than 150 Yuan per month. When the human rights defender's lawyer contested this and asked the officer to provide the legal basis for these monetary and spending limits, the police officer was not able to answer and walked away. When the lawyer and the family asked the security guards to allow them to wait inside the detention centre's reception area, the guards said their leaders instructed them not to open the doors to visitors.

The human rights defender's lawyer and wife also went to the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Public Security's Letters and Visits Office to submit complaints against the Baoji Municipal Public Security Bureau's handling of the Chang Weiping's case, including its refusal to facilitate access to legal counsel, as well as to follow-up on Dr Chen Zijuan's previously lodged complaints against the Bureau submitted in April 2021. An official at the Letters and Visits Office told them that their previous complaints were already transferred to the Baoji Public Security Bureau who replied in late April. When Dr Chen Zijuan said she had never received any replies, the official told her to talk directly to the Baoji Public Security Bureau.

The lawyer and family then went to the Shaanxi Provincial Procuratorate to submit complaints against the Baoji police. After making multiple phone calls to superiors, the receptionist told them that Chang Weiping's case is "very special and sensitive" and that her superiors told her that the Procuratorate will not intervene.