Swearing to seek justice, Zhang Zhaoliang, 39, gave up his regular income to devote his time to a lawsuit he filed against the local government over unfair land requisition. The already debt-ridden farmer even divorced his wife temporarily for fear of retaliation by local officials. After much courage and perseverance, he was heartened at the news of victory-an illegal real estate development project was halted, and subsequently, about 1,400 households including Zhang's in the village of Changting near Fenghua City were able to keep the land their families had tilled for generations.

Extensive media coverage hailed this the first victory by an ordinary farmer over the provincial government in an illegal land requisition lawsuit.

"A farmer won a lawsuit against a provincial government, which is viewed as an epoch-making victory in China, beating all expectations," said Zhang's attorney Yuan Yulai.

Honor and dignity

Zhang was born into an ordinary farm family that had led a righteous life for generations in Changting on the outskirts of Fenghua. Changting is only about a two-hour drive from Shanghai and has a growing private economy. Due to the rapid increase in commercial land development in recent years, many local farmers have lost their land.

Zhang was the fifth child out of six and his father died when he was only 10 years old. The family found it hard to make ends meet, though Zhang managed to complete his high school education with donations from villagers and through support from the school.

After graduation, Zhang dedicated himself to bringing his impoverished family a rich life. Smart and able, Zhang built a house at the age of 22 after running a small business for several years. He became the envy of his neighbors.

Later, as many villagers dropped farming and opened businesses, Zhang contracted a large amount of land and turned it into a vineyard. Unlike the illiterate or semi-illiterate villagers, the high school graduate bought many books and subscribed to science and technology newspapers in hopes of gleaning knowledge that would help boost his vineyard production.

The family's happy life hit a bump in the road by the end of 2003. It was then that Zhang decided to seek justice for his unfairly requisitioned vineyard. In December 2003, Zhang was told his vineyard would be requisitioned for construction. The compensation of 30,000 yuan was much less than he expected. More unacceptable to Zhang was the haughty attitude of village officials. "That is all the money we can give you," they said. "You are free to file a lawsuit if you feel unsatisfied."

He went to negotiate with the Party chief of the village for more money, but came away empty handed. "I had never expected they would increase the compensation and I might have let it go if they had been nicer or had a better attitude," admitted Zhang.

In despair, the indignant Zhang sought legal consultation. After contemplating the problem from all sides for quite some time, he decided to take the case to court.

"These bullying village officials must have thought we were easy to insult and tyrannize," said Zhang. "I decided to change this unfair situation and take the case to court, not only for compensation, but also for honor and dignity."

Fair and square

The first difficulty for Zhang was to find a lawyer willing to offer him help in suing the local government. He was later introduced to Yuan, who is one of the few lawyers devoted to administrative lawsuits in China and enjoys a good reputation in legal circles.

Yuan accepted the case and surmised that it was very possible that the land requisition hadn't gone through a valid approval and ratification process, as the local government didn't issue a requisition bulletin in line with the law.

In February 2004, Zhang wrote a letter of complaint to the Fenghua Bureau of Land and Resources, demanding an investigation and punishment for illegal land requisition. After receiving no reply for two months, he filed a lawsuit against the bureau. In court, the bureau was forced to testify that the land requisition had not been formally approved of by the higher authorities. What had been going on was mere "preliminary" preparation works, they said.

On May 19, the Fenghua City Government formally issued an urbanization plan. According to this plan, the entire Changting Village was scheduled for renovation and was registered as state-owned land. The plan wasn't approved by the provincial government until two months later.

On July 22, 2004, the Fenghua City Government issued the relocation bulletin in Changting Village.

"It was apparently a malpractice," said Yuan. "According to law, the government must seek agreement with local farmers about compensation before the land requisition and only after this can they turn the collectively-owned rural land into state-owned land."

On September 20, 2005, Zhang and another 11 fellow villagers filed a new lawsuit with Ningbo Intermediate People's Court (Fenghua is under the jurisdiction of Ningbo). This lawsuit was not accepted by the court, which cited that these villagers didn't have the right to file a lawsuit since they did not constitute a majority of the villagers.

After another several vain attempts, at the end of 2005 the small group of villagers sued the Zhejiang Provincial Government and the governor as its representative in the Zhejiang Higher People's Court.

On April 14, 2006, the Zhejiang Higher People's Court made its historic ruling that the provincial government had acted illegally in not accepting the villagers' request for reconsideration. This ruling was final.

On December 28, 2006, the Zhejiang Provincial Government made the administrative reconsideration and revoked its approval on July 23, 2005 that allows the collectively-owned land of Changting Village to be registered as state-owned land. This marked a victory for the dozen villagers after their four-year long lawsuit involving the relocation of over 1,400 households.

Exhausted and relieved

Yet this victory didn't relieve Zhang. There was still the possibility that the halted commercial project would be reopened because of loopholes. In an effort to seek further guarantees of their interests, Zhang and his fellow villagers submitted an application to the State Council for an administrative verdict ruling that the provincial government had acted illegally in granting permission for the collectively-owned land to be commercially developed.

Zhang, the hero in the case, does not appear overjoyed after going through all these tortures. In the past three years, Zhang stopped all work to concentrate on the lawsuit and his wife supported the family with her meager salary. Zhang himself was verbally and physically threatened by several anonymous thugs. The fear of becoming entangled in these disputes estranged Zhang and his fellow villagers despite the fact that they were in support of him. Feeling isolated and frustrated, Zhang often thought about giving up.

In this dilemma, Zhang chose persistence but prepared for the worst. He signed a divorce agreement with his wife and transferred the family's property solely into the name of his wife, including his little son.

"But I always hold faith in the justice of law," Zhang explained.

Zhang is now a law-savvy man thanks to the prolonged lawsuit. He bought a large number of law books and turned himself into a diligent law student in order to win the victory. Now versed in related administrative and land laws, Zhang can recite many clauses in interviews and at court.

His story began to attract extensive media coverage and Zhang has gained even further support since March this year. Many supporters wrote letters or denoted money to his cause. Others called him or paid visits to offer suggestions. Under public pressure, the stubborn local government finally moved to negotiate a solution with Zhang.

"I was really exhausted and wanted a resolution," Zhang said, recalling the tough days. The wide media coverage offered him no retreat since he also represented the interests of his fellow villagers and all the farmers who had lost their land in illegal land requisition.

"I would have let many people down and been reproached by them if I had given up after I got the desired compensation," said Zhang.

His most pressing wish now is to get back to the normal life he had before the lawsuit. Talking about the future, he felt a lot of uncertainty.

But one thing is for sure, he said, "I will continue to safeguard the interests of my family by legal means."