Guangdong Lufeng: 13 Villagers Arrested for Blocking Mountain Mining; 4 Convicted, 9 Receive State Compensation

Thirteen villagers from Baishan Village in Lufeng, Guangdong, were arrested for reporting and blocking the mining of mountain stone materials on their village land. They were accused of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" (xunxin zishi), with authorities claiming their actions disrupted high-speed railway construction.

In the first-instance trial, all 13 were convicted of the charge and sentenced to one to over two years in prison. They refused to accept the verdict and appealed.

In the second-instance trial, the Shanwei Intermediate Court handled the case by splitting it. Four individuals — Yan Moucheng, Su Mouzhou, Su Mouxuan, and Yan Mouchun — were found guilty of the charge, but the original sentences were deemed too harsh. Two were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, while two were granted exemption from criminal punishment. As for the other nine, the Intermediate Court sent the case back for retrial due to insufficient evidence. During retrial, the Lufeng City Procuratorate dropped the charges against them.

In late June 2026, Lin Saitao told The Paper that the nine had received State Compensation Decision Letters from the Shanwei Intermediate Court, with each receiving between over 300,000 yuan and over 400,000 yuan in state compensation.

Notably, the mountain excavation had previously been deemed "illegal mining" by the Lufeng City Bureau of Natural Resources. Lin Saitao revealed that the mining had stopped before they were arrested.

Currently, the mountain has been re-greened.

Blocking Mountain Mining, 13 Villagers Arrested

In the early hours of November 22, 2022, Lin Saitao was taken away by police while sleeping at home. She later learned that 11 villagers, including herself, were taken away that morning; two more were subsequently arrested. All 13 villagers were criminally detained on suspicion of xunxin zishi.

Lin Saitao, born in 1977, is a villager of Baishan Village, Nantang Town, Lufeng City, Shanwei, Guangdong, and also a teacher at a local primary school. The involvement of Lin and the other 12 villagers was related to their earlier reporting and blocking of mountain stone mining in the village.

The "Shanwei-Shantou High-Speed Railway" is a section of the Ningbo-Guangzhou high-speed railway connecting Shantou and Shanwei in Guangdong Province. According to local villagers, the railway passes through Baishan Village, where Lufeng East Station is located. In early 2020, the high-speed railway construction team entered Baishan Village.

Soon, villagers noticed something unusual. Several Baishan villagers claimed that Jiabi Mountain (also known as Qibi Mountain or Qiaobi Mountain), located about 500 meters from the railway, was being quarried for stone — and the people doing it were the high-speed railway construction workers. The quarrying required blasting, creating loud explosions that damaged many villagers' homes, with some developing cracks.

Photos provided by villagers showed visible cracks in the walls of houses.

According to a preliminary opinion document on compensation for the Shanshan Railway's earth extraction site issued by the Baishan Village Committee in July 2020, the extraction site was designated at Baishan Village's Jiabi Mountain. The village would receive 5 yuan per cubic meter of earth and stone taken. Many villagers said they were unaware that Jiabi Mountain had been "sold" and that no one informed them. Therefore, the villagers believed the mining was illegal and reported it to multiple authorities.

Lin Saitao noted that after reporting yielded no results, some villagers turned to online platforms to voice their concerns, while others went to the mine to protest and block stone transport, leading to conflicts. During this period, the villagers demanded that the mining stop and that compensation be paid for their damaged homes, but to no avail.

Mining Deemed Illegal, Villagers Receive Town Government Compensation

In January 2021, the Lufeng City Bureau of Natural Resources stated in a verification report submitted to the Lufeng City government that it had received multiple reports from the public regarding illegal mining by the China Railway Guangzhou Engineering Bureau's Shanshan Railway Station Third Bid Project Management Department (the "Railway Project Department") on collective land in Tazai Village (a natural village under Baishan Village Committee). The Bureau took the matter seriously and dispatched personnel along with Nantang Town government law enforcement officers to conduct on-site inspections in December 2020. They found that the Railway Project Department, without approval, had been occupying over 20,000 square meters of land in Tazai Village to extract earth and stone for railway construction since December 2020, in violation of Article 3, Paragraph 3 of the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China.