For more news visit ☛ http://english.ntdtv.com
Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision
Add us on Facebook ☛ http://facebook.com/NTDTelevision

Land seizures by local authorities are common in China. Recently residents of one village in Shandong Province found their crops being destroyed by bulldozers just one month before harvest. Local authorities had requested the land but there had been no formal decision by a judge.

On the morning of August 10th, residents of San Li Han Village, in Guan County, Shandong province awoke to the sound of bulldozers destroying their crops. Those crops would have been ready for harvest in one month. When they tried to intervene they were met with force.

[Mr. Xu, Villager]:
"They went from house to house, ruining all the crops, everyone feels very pained in their hearts. One woman from San Li Han Village cut them off and tried not to let them destroy the crops, so one guy hit her and knocked her unconscious. She has remained unconscious for two or three days."

Local officials had requested the land for development. Villagers think those authorities hired thugs to destroy their crops to get a hold of the land sooner.

The villager's lawyer, Shu Xiangxin, showed that local officials are illegally taking almost 66 acres of land from Sa Li Han and another village in Guan County.

[Shu Xiangxin, Lawyer]:
"When the county commissioner Mou Guilu was talking with the villagers he said that this area of land had been requested, but there had been no formal judgment. According to the current land policy, the request must be approved by the people who live there, they must convene a meeting with all the residents, but this process did not take place in Guan County."

Mr. Shu revealed that since 1962 over 1,600 acres have been taken away from people in Guan County.

Ben Hedges