Farmer Studies Law 16 Years to Fight Chemical Company Pollution

Yushutun village is located in China’s Heilongjiang Province, a place where the locals have been fighting a battle against a chemical and mineral processing company. Local farmers, led by Wang Enlin, have sued the Qihua Group for rendering their farmlands unusable after polluting them with toxic waste. Enlin spent 16 years studying law to bring the company to justice and has helped his village win the initial judgment of the case. 

Chinese Farmer Sues Chemical Company for Ruining Land With Toxic Waste

In 2001, toxic waste produced by the Qihua Group began flooding the village’s farmlands. This was when one of the local farmers, Wang Enlin, decided to pursue law and take the company on for their actions. Minutes from the Qiqihar Angang River District Council in 2021 state that it was determined that the farmland was too polluted to be used for a long time. It was found that the company had been releasing around 15,000 to 20,000 tons of waste every year. This has resulted in a 478-acre pond of liquid waste and a 71-acre calcium carbide residue wasteland. While Enlin felt that they had a case, He wasn’t sure what laws they had broken or whether there was evidence or not that could tie the waste to the company. 

The Chinese farmer only had three years of formal education, yet he did not let this stop him. He started reading law books, using a dictionary to help him grasp the complex terminology. He was not even able to afford to buy the books he needed from the local bookstore, so  he spent 16 years handwriting notes from the books. In return for allowing him to use the books, Enlin traded corn with the bookstore owner. He specifically focused on environmental protection law and Chinese land management and shared his knowledge with his neighbors, informing them of their legal rights. 

Lawyers Come to the Aid of the Chinese Farmers

In 2007, the China University of Political Science and Law’s Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLPAV) reached out to help the villagers. Lawyers such as Liu Junmei helped the farmers file their suit against the mineral and chemical manufacturing company. In 2015, the case eventually started to be processed. They ended up winning the initial judgment against the company in the Angangxi District Court of Qiqihar. The victims were awarded the equivalent of around $119,000, and the company is currently appealing the outcome of the case. 

The revision of China’s Environmental Protection Law in 2015 broadened “environmental public interest litigation” (EPIL). This enabled NGOs to sue the companies responsible for polluting and expand cleanup and ecological restoration efforts. This allowed environmental cases across the nation to accelerate. Since then, EPIL has grown rapidly, with court and scholarship data revealing sharp increases. Thousands of environmental cases have since been concluded by courts in the last few years, and there has been an increase in prosecutorial filings. 

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Recent Similar Cases

According to the Supreme People’s Court, 4,168 EPIL suits and 246 compensation cases were concluded in 2024 alone. Two significant cases in the Supreme Court set the tone for this wave of change in late 2023. In one of these cases, the judges stated that not just the company should be held responsible when the business causes pollution, but the owner of the company, too. In another case, the judges announced that prosecutors from the government coils actually sue local environmental agencies if they do not prevent toxic waste from being dumped on the land. These important examples made proper cleanup efforts much easier to enforce. 

Companies found guilty now face both punishment and payback. For example, there was a case in Kunming, where a paper manufacturing company was served a 2 million yuan criminal fine and had to also pay 10.8 million yuan to repair the damage done to the environment. It is not only on land that these changes are being implemented. The maritime courts of China are also actively enforcing changes and penalties. The coast guard recently brought a case forward, eventually securing 1.28 million yuan to help clean up a protected area after illegal dumping occurred there. 

These settlements are not just about financial gain; they help to protect the environment from future damage. For too long, companies were able to get away with dumping their waste on land that the locals both lived on and sustained themselves with. Locals such as Wang Enlin have managed to empower themselves with knowledge and used the legal system to get justice for both the local people and the environment. With the proper legal representation, they have been able to secure wins that have led to the restoration efforts needed to clean up the mess produced by these companies. 

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