Recently, villagers in Xinmin City, Shenyang City, reported that in 2019, a company illegally occupied arable land to build a factory in the area. The leakage of asphalt stored in the factory has caused extensive pollution to basic farmland, causing long-term distress to the villagers. Despite years of reporting by the villagers, the factory continues to operate normally.
According to a report from the Jinan Daily News Yellow River Client, Liaoning Tuochi Industrial Co., Ltd. illegally occupied 1635.61 square meters of land (paddy fields) in Wangjia Hetai Village, Hutai Town, Xinmin City in April 2019 and built a factory for the storage of asphalt for road construction.
Local villager Mr. Wang (surname) said that the newly built factory is close to the adjacent farmland, only a dozen meters away in a straight line, and only tens of meters away from the nearest households. “The asphalt stored needs to be heated before transportation, and the pungent odor generated during heating has been a long-term nuisance to the villagers.”
In 2021, the villagers reported Tuochi Industrial for illegally occupying land. On August 31 of the same year, the Natural Resources Bureau of Xinmin City ordered the company to return the illegally occupied land, confiscated the illegal construction, and fined them more than 30,000 yuan. However, Mr. Wang stated that the company only paid the fine and did not return the encroached land or remove the building facilities. The storage tanks still exist.
Mr. Wang mentioned that besides the odor issue, the leakage from the storage tanks has polluted the farmland in the village, escalating the conflict between the villagers and Tuochi Industrial.
In early 2025, a heavy storage tank inside the Tuochi Industrial factory collapsed, causing a large amount of asphalt leakage, pushing several large trucks parked beneath the tank several tens of meters away. Although there were no casualties in the accident, nearly 20 mu of permanent basic farmland in the vicinity was completely flooded by asphalt. However, the company was not punished afterwards.
In response to this, personnel from the Ecological Environment Sub-bureau of Xinmin City stated that the incident was considered an emergency event and not intentional emissions by the company, so no punishment was imposed on the company. It was agreed for the company and the villagers whose land was contaminated to negotiate a resolution on their own. As for why the encroached land has not been returned, staff from the Natural Resources Office of Hutai Town mentioned that they are currently not aware of the situation.
After the incident gained attention online, on February 11, Shenyang City issued a notification announcing the establishment of a joint investigation team to conduct a comprehensive investigation in the area.