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Sister Ping: Living Buddha of Shengmei Village
By Zhang Huiyu, The World Journal, published in Chinese in Whitestone, New York, May 23, 2005

Sister Ping's fellow villagers in Shengmei spoke highly of her as their living Buddha. She is currently under trial in New York for human smuggling. Amid gratitude and sadness, villagers expressed their willingness to share her imprisonment each for one year, in an effort to pay back the help she has allegedly provided to get their relatives out of China.

Ping, the oldest of three children of the Zheng family, used to live at 398, a three-storied house within the village, which is now empty. She migrated to Hong Kong with her husband when she was in her early twenties.

Sister Ping on Trial, Villagers Voice Support
By Zhang Huiyu, The World Journal, published in Chinese in Whitestone, New York, May 22, 2005

Sister Ping, the notorious snakehead from mainland China, has a support group in her home village of Shengmei, Ting Jiang Township, Fuzhou, at a time when she is being tried as a criminal in the federal court in New York.

Her fellow villagers gathered on May 21 to offer moral support for Ping. A petition will be filed to the judge of this case in New York via a representative from Shengmei. They described Sister Ping as a living Buddha. Ninety percent of Shengmei villagers now residing overseas were brought out of the country with the help of Ping.

Smuggling of Immigrants Is Detailed as Trial Starts
By Julia Preston, New York Times, May 17, 2005

The notorious "Sister Ping" went on trial May 16 in the Federal District Court in Manhattan in New York City on charges of kidnapping and hostage taking.

Chen Chui Ping is the woman suspected of being responsible for masterminding the smuggling of hundreds of illegal Chinese immigrants into the United States. She allegedly purchased the Golden Venture, the freighter that caught international attention when it ran aground on a beach off Queens in 1993; 10 illegal aliens drowned while trying to swim ashore.

Federal prosecutors say Ping successfully moved hundreds of illegal immigrants in the cargo holds of ships and kept them hostage in New York warehouses until they paid her fees -- up to $40,000 each.

Ping's lawyer, Lawrence Hochheiser, argued that Ping's only involvement with people smuggling was incidental to her underground but legal banking house.