Ding Hanzhong is a farmer from Dingjiashan Village, near the city of Weifang in Shandong Province, whose clash with demolition workers in 2013 made his case one of China’s most closely followed land-rights cases.
In early 2013, Ding’s family home was included in a local urbanization project and marked for demolition. The family rejected the compensation package: his son Ding Chao told reporters they were offered 36,000 yuan but would have had to pay 48,000 yuan to secure another home to live in.
On September 25, 2013, a group of demolition workers entered Ding’s home. A physical confrontation broke out, and Ding seized a sickle and struck two of the workers, Huang Zhongtai and Huang Guohou, killing them. Ding has said the workers beat him and his son first and that he was struck in the head with a shovel before reaching for the sickle; the court found instead that he was clear-headed, attacked first, and continued striking one victim after he had lost consciousness.
In July 2014 the Weifang Intermediate People’s Court convicted Ding of intentional homicide and sentenced him to death. In April 2016 the Shandong High People’s Court annulled the verdict, citing ambiguous facts and insufficient evidence, and ordered a retrial.
The retrial concluded with a death sentence suspended for two years. Unusually, the verdict restricted commutation so that the sentence could only ever be reduced to life imprisonment, not to a fixed term. The court also found that the urbanization project was legally approved and that the house’s legal owner — Ding’s mother — had agreed to the demolition, so the workers could not be treated as illegal intruders.
Ding’s family was quoted as shocked and angry at the retrial verdict. His son maintained that his father had acted in justifiable self-defense, protecting their home. Ding appealed, and in January 2018 the Shandong High People’s Court upheld the suspended death sentence. His daughter said the family would seek further review through the Supreme People’s Court. No verified outcome of that application has been publicly reported.
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Media Profile & Archive: Ding Hanzhong — Media Archive & Case Record