Following a three-day protest, on October 21, 2016, more than 100 Mongolian herders from Sandag Gachaa (a Gachaa consists of several villages) of Hailas Township in eastern Southern (Inner) Mongolia’s Ongniud Banner gathered near the construction site of the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO Group), urging the Chinese government to halt COFCO Group’s pig farm project that illegally occupied a large tract of local Mongolian herders’ grazing land...

In 2014, the Hailas Township government sold the land to COFCO Group without the local herders’ free, prior, and informed consent. As herders stood up to oppose the local authorities’ illegal land appropriation, clashes between the herders and local authorities have become increasingly frequent...“Not only is this a flagrant denial of our traditional pastoralist way of life,” a herder named Sarnaa told the SMHRIC, “but also this will bring a further destruction to the already devastated natural environment.”...