On June 3, the Nanhai District People’s Court in Guandong held another hearing of the case brought by farmers of Sanshan Island in Nanhai against their local government for its failure to make public land agreements from 1992. At the hearing, Tian Li, a legal aid volunteer for the Chinese Citizens Rights Defense Alliance serving as the farmers’ legal representative, requested again that the defendants make public the agreements signed by the former Nanhai County Bureau of Land and Resources and several township and village leaders. The plaintiffs allege that these agreements caused the people of Sanshan to lose the land they relied on to survive, resulted in large amounts of land being left fallow, and forced farmers to buy food to eat. During the hearing, the representatives of the government remained silent. The court said that it will select another day to announce the verdict.
