The long-running case concerning the Qinzhou municipal government's recovery of auctioned land and a developer's 17-year wait for compensation has reached a new stage. According to a judgment document seen by The Paper, on September 14, 2026, the Guangxi High People's Court delivered a final ruling: the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources must render an administrative decision on the recovery of the land use rights and compensation within six months of the judgment taking effect; likewise, the Qinzhou Municipal Government must fulfill its approval responsibilities for this recovery and compensation matter within the same six-month period.
The High Court emphasized: "To substantively resolve administrative disputes and promote the sustained, healthy, and high-quality development of the private economy, the Qinzhou Municipal Government and the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources should promptly fulfill their respective statutory duties, recover the state-owned land use rights involved, and provide legal and reasonable compensation to Mangrove Company." The project plot is located on the shore of Qinzhou Port.
Where things stand now
The project was halted 17 years ago without compensation, and the legal dispute once reached the Supreme People's Court. Sun Fu (a pseudonym), a 59-year-old entrepreneur from Fujian, was recruited to Guangxi through investment promotion in 2007 and established Guangxi Mangrove Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. (hereafter 'Mangrove Company'). In early 2008, the company won the land use rights for a plot in Qinzhou Port area through bidding. However, within a year of starting site work, the local government announced a change in Qinzhou Port's planning, forcing a halt to the project.
Following the formal compensation procedure, three years of multiple rounds of communication and negotiation took place. The project was officially halted by a written reply from the Qinzhou Municipal Planning Commission on September 8, 2009. In September 2012, the Qinzhou Municipal Government issued an official approval to recover the land use rights through monetary compensation, specifying the payment timeline and liability for breach of contract. According to a letter reply from the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources, in October 2012, the city's land price assessment review group and the municipal audit bureau approved a total compensation fee of approximately 248 million yuan for the Qinzhou Port Mangrove real estate project.
Sun Fu recounted that he thought the matter would conclude, and shareholders awaited the government's compensation payment. However, days later, the plan failed to pass the city's land review meeting. The issue subsequently fell into a vicious cycle of submitting proposals, requesting instructions, being rejected, and resubmitting.
According to information previously reported by The Paper, the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources disclosed in a letter reply that between 2009 and 2017, it submitted disposal plans and requests at least 16 times to the Qinzhou Municipal Government, the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission, the Municipal Party Committee Supervision Office, and other departments, none of which resolved the compensation issue.
Seventeen years after the project was halted, with local leadership changing repeatedly, Sun Fu and others still have not received any compensation. In desperation, Mangrove Company filed a civil lawsuit in 2018. The Guangxi High Court ruled that the compensation behavior of the Qinzhou Municipal Government and the Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources for recovering state-owned land use rights is an administrative act based on their responsibility to manage national land resources, classifying the resulting dispute as an administrative compensation dispute within the scope of administrative litigation. On September 29, 2020, the Supreme People's Court made a final ruling: the dispute between Mangrove Company and the Qinzhou Municipal Government and Land Bureau is essentially a compensation dispute arising from the government's recovery of land due to planning adjustments, which falls under the scope of administrative litigation.
Over the past few years, Mangrove Company has continuously sought a negotiated solution, and the Qinzhou Municipal Government has made positive statements on multiple occasions. In April 2021, the then director of the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources, Wang Tingzhi, stated in an interview that the municipal party committee secretary attached great importance to the compensation issue and had given instructions, and that the relevant municipal departments would actively liaise with Mangrove Company to reach an agreement, potentially resolving the issue through land exchange. In July 2021, Huang Lihe, then Deputy Secretary-General of the Qinzhou Municipal Government, said in an interview that the government was still actively coordinating with Mangrove Company, that the obstacles to a solution were not significant, and that a resolution was expected within a few months.
Sun Fu claims that another five years have passed without a substantive solution from Qinzhou.
Key ruling and next steps
The Guangxi High Court stated that recovering the land and providing compensation is a statutory duty, and the municipal government must make a compensation decision within six months. In April 2022, Mangrove Company filed an administrative lawsuit, its second against the Qinzhou Municipal Government. On November 30 of that year, the Qinzhou Intermediate Court issued a first-instance ruling rejecting Mangrove Company's lawsuit, reasoning that the case was not within the scope of administrative litigation. Mangrove Company appealed.
On April 8, 2024, the Guangxi High Court issued an administrative ruling overturning the Qinzhou Intermediate Court's decision and ordering it to continue hearing the case. The High Court noted in its ruling: "Regardless of which administrative procedure the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and the Qinzhou Municipal Government choose to recover the land use rights, they must provide corresponding compensation to the right holder. The people's court should focus on the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, substantively resolve administrative disputes, and avoid procedural dead ends in administrative trials."
On August 26, 2025, the Qinzhou Intermediate Court issued a retrial first-instance judgment: the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources was to compensate for the value of the land use rights and preliminary investments within six months of the judgment taking effect, and the Qinzhou Municipal Government was to fulfill its approval duties for the compensation plan within six months. Mangrove Company appealed the decision.
In the second instance, the Guangxi High Court addressed issues including the nature of the case, the meeting minutes and official approval, whether the land had been recovered, compensation standards, and liquidated damages. The court concluded that the case should be classified as compensation for the recovery of state-owned land use rights, rather than an administrative promise or failure to perform statutory duties. It affirmed that recovering state-owned land use rights and providing appropriate compensation is the statutory duty of the natural resources administrative department, with the government responsible for approval.
On September 14, 2026, the Guangxi High Court ruled in its final judgment that, because a compensation agreement had not been signed and an administrative handling decision had not been made, the first-instance finding that the land had already been recovered was incorrect and was corrected. It clarified that the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources must make an administrative handling decision on the recovery of the land use rights and compensation for their value, as well as Mangrove Company's preliminary investments, within six months of the judgment taking effect. The Qinzhou Municipal Government must fulfill its statutory approval duties for this recovery and compensation within six months.
The High Court further stated that Mangrove Company, the Qinzhou Municipal Government, and the Qinzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources all have no objection to the recovery of the land use rights. It reiterated that recovering state-owned land use rights and providing appropriate compensation is the statutory duty of the natural resources department of the people's government, and approving such recovery is the statutory duty of the people's government. Receiving appropriate compensation after the recovery of acquired state-owned land use rights is a legitimate right of Mangrove Company.
A representative of Mangrove Company, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment, arguing that it still does not substantively resolve the administrative dispute. "Seventeen years have passed. After so many years of litigation, we are still waiting for the government's compensation decision and facing the prospect of further lawsuits over the compensation. We don't know how many more years we must wait." The representative stated that the company would file a petition with the Supreme People's Court.