Having worked in the areas for more than ten years, Lin clearly recalls that in 1996, the Tianjin municipal government decided to move the then Tianjin Special Steel plant to Baitangkou. Afterwards, however, the 1,000 mu land earmarked for the plant stayed idle as the company went bankrupt. Later in 2000, the land was given the green light by the municipal government to be used for industrial purposes, and became state-owned.

Lin reasons the village's choice to lease land for other usage instead of farming: If used for farming, one mu land—666 square meters—brings 600 yuan a year. In other words, one square meter brings one yuan every year.

"What if they "plant" houses Renting out one square meter means 30 yuan of income a day, and one mu land means 10,000 yuan a year," he explains.

As the village has undergone transformations in recent years, Tian, already convicted, has become the talk of the town. Born in 1948 in Tianjin, Tian had worked as the village party branch secretary for 22 years before he was arrested in August of 2006.

In 1992, he was also appointed as the general manager of Baitangkou Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Company. In defense on trial, his legal counsel had pointed out that Tian "has worked for grassroots causes and made considerable contributions to the economic development of the village".

It was during his reign that the size of farmland in the village began shrinking rapidly. An official of Jinnan Discipline and Inspection Committee has written a report on the village's land use conditions and recounted the history of farmland disappearing in Baitangkou:

• From 2001 to 2006, 1178.2 mu land was confiscated by Shuanggang local government, a neighboring town, at some 40 million yuan.
• From 2004 to 2006, over 430 mu land was confiscated by Xinzhuang local government at some 22.72 million yuan; 700 mu land was used for industrial purposes at 4.34 million yuan.
• From 2001 to 2006, 1,540 mu land was exploited by the village itself and 98 enterprises were built there. Rental for workshops and land amounted to 4.03 million and 9.79 million yuan respectively.

According to the financial statement of the village made by Jinnan local government in June 2006, between 2001 and 2006, land-related income totaled over 81 million yuan, including income from land transfer, rent, and sale.