A case similar to the "13 villagers accused of picking quarrels and provoking trouble for blocking quarrying" incident in Baishan Village, Lufeng City, Guangdong Province, has emerged. Earlier, 13 villagers in the same village were arrested for reporting and blocking the quarrying of stone materials from local hills, allegedly affecting high-speed railway construction. During the second-instance trial, four received lighter sentences, while the remaining nine had their cases concluded with prosecutors withdrawing charges.
A man identified as Liu Mouliang, who had a strikingly similar experience to the 13 Baishan villagers, reported to The Paper that his ordeal closely paralleled theirs. In earlier years, he had contracted nearby hills and, after discovering illegal quarrying, reported it to multiple government departments and physically blocked the unlawful extraction. In January 2021, prior to the arrest of the 13 villagers, he was taken into custody by Lufeng police.
The Lufeng court's first-instance ruling found Liu's actions did not constitute extortion but did amount to picking quarrels and provoking trouble, sentencing him to three years in prison. Liu appealed, and the Shanwei Intermediate Court upheld the original verdict in the second instance. Liu maintains his actions were legitimate rights protection and has been petitioning for a retrial since his release. In May 2026, the Guangdong Provincial High Court accepted his petition.
Previously reported by The Paper, in early 2020, the project department for the Shantou-Shanwei high-speed railway entered Baishan Village for construction. Several villagers claimed that Jiabi Mountain, located over 500 meters from the railway line, was being quarried, causing damage to homes, with some developing cracks. A preliminary compensation plan drafted by the Baishan Village Committee in July 2020 indicated that Jiabi Mountain was designated as a soil extraction site for the railway, with compensation set at 5 yuan per cubic meter to the village. However, many villagers claimed they were unaware the mountain had been "sold" and reported the matter to multiple authorities.
Liu Mouliang also reported the illegal quarrying through channels such as the 12345 hotline. He stated that "Riben Mountain" and "Jiabi Mountain" fell within his contracted boundaries. In early 2020, the China Railway Guangzhou Engineering Bureau's project department for the Shantou-Shanwei railway section illegally quarried Jiabi Mountain, encroaching on his contracted land and damaging roads he had built. From June 2020, he repeatedly went to the quarry site to block operations, called the police, and lodged complaints with various departments. After negotiations, the other party verbally agreed to compensate him 1 million yuan, which he did not accept.
Court records show that on January 28, 2021, the Lufeng Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau reviewed his land contract and declared it invalid. The next day, Liu was detained by Lufeng police. Notably, the Lufeng Natural Resources Bureau had previously determined the quarrying was illegal. In a January 2021 report to the Lufeng government, the bureau stated that the railway project department had, without approval, occupied over 20,000 square meters of land since December 2020 to extract earth and stone for railway construction. A cease-and-desist notice was issued, but a follow-up inspection on January 18, 2021, revealed the department had expanded its quarrying operations instead of stopping.
In May 2023, the National Natural Resources Supervision Office for Shanwei issued a notice urging the Lufeng government to address illegal mining at the Baishan Village railway soil extraction site, citing issues raised by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Natural Resources.
In August 2021, the Lufeng Procuratorate indicted Liu on charges of extortion and picking quarrels. The indictment alleged that after the railway project began in April 2020, Liu repeatedly approached the project department seeking cooperation in quarrying, which was refused. He then allegedly threatened that without his cooperation, the project could not proceed. Between April and September 2020, he incited villagers not to sign land compensation agreements, delaying the agreement until December 2020. Starting in November 2020, he repeatedly petitioned environmental protection and natural resources authorities. In October 2020, he demanded 5 million yuan in compensation, which was rejected, though the project department verbally agreed to 1 million yuan to avoid losses, a proposal Liu later rejected by demanding cooperation in the quarrying project. He and an accomplice allegedly organized people to block the construction site using containers, vehicles, and verbal abuse, causing project delays.
Liu denied the charges, stating he only blocked illegal quarrying and reported it, without organizing villagers to obstruct work. His defense argued that his actions were legitimate rights protection, not unreasonable troublemaking, and that there was no evidence of threats or extortion. The Lufeng court ruled in the first instance that Liu's earlier demand was for cooperation in quarrying, not extortion, and that compensation discussions were consensual, thus not meeting the elements of extortion. However, for the charge of picking quarrels, the court found that Liu, to achieve unreasonable demands and vent personal dissatisfaction, repeatedly organized people to block construction using containers, vehicles, and verbal abuse, seriously disrupting production and social order. In July 2022, he was sentenced to three years in prison. The Shanwei Intermediate Court upheld the ruling in January 2023.
After Liu's arrest, in November 2022, the 13 Baishan villagers were also detained for blocking illegal mining on similar charges. All were initially convicted in the first instance, with sentences ranging from over one to over two years. On appeal, the Shanwei Intermediate Court handled the cases separately, finding four guilty but reducing sentences—two to eight months and two to exemption from criminal punishment. The other nine had their cases sent back for retrial due to insufficient evidence, and the procuratorate eventually dropped charges. Four are currently petitioning for retrials, while the nine have received state compensation.
Following his release, Liu filed a petition. In October 2025, the Shanwei Intermediate Court rejected it, stating that the project department's delayed agreement with the village was due to Liu's instigation, and that Jiabi Mountain was outside Liu's contracted area. Regarding Liu's claim of unequal treatment in similar cases, the court said different cases have different facts and evidence, and prior rulings are only for reference. In May 2026, the Guangdong High Court accepted Liu's petition. Liu said he submitted additional materials in late July, with no further progress as of August.
Separately, after his release in January 2024, Liu discovered that a land management right covering 6,390 square meters owned by his company had been transferred to another party through a debt settlement at a low price. Liu claimed the land was worth over 10 million yuan but was used to settle a 2 million yuan debt plus interest, selling for only about 3.27 million yuan. He alleged errors in the appraisal report, procedural flaws in the auction process, and lack of proper notification while he was incarcerated. In June 2026, the Shanwei Intermediate Court responded, stating the land appraisal and auction procedures were lawful. However, the court acknowledged procedural flaws, including inconsistencies in auction announcement times, an excessive gap between the two auctions, and typographical errors in land certificate numbers in official correspondence. These issues, the court said, did not affect substantive rights and were attributed to the presiding judge's negligence, though no misconduct or corruption was found. In July 2025, the Lufeng court stated it had formed an investigation team to review Liu's petition materials.