A director of Dongchang district in Liaocheng, Shandong province, has threatened to sack more than 40 of his officials unless they persuade their relatives to sign a demolition agreement in the area.

The affected residents come from the region's Chenzhuang village and more than 200 households have hired a lawyer over the issue, Beijing News reported on Friday.

The lawyer, Zhang Jianhui, reportedly said the project aims to develop commercial and residential buildings but lacks legal requirements.

Lu Hongyuan, deputy director of the Dongchang district letters and visits bureau, is one of the officials who might lose his job.

Lu's brother-in-law, Chen Jialiang, is a villager in Chenzhuang. Lu reportedly kept asking Chen to sign the agreement after attending a meeting held by the district government on Wednesday.

Lu said the district's director, Sun Meng, threw out an announcement in the meeting, asking all officials to persuade their relatives in Chenzhuang to sign the agreement before New Year's Day.

Lu said Sun called him on Thursday, saying that if Chen did not sign the agreement by Friday, Lu "would not need to come to work anymore".

Xu Hongdong, a villager, told Beijing News that there were more than 40 other officials in the district government who were residents of Chenzhuang village. All of them received the same threat as Lu.

The building project started last November and more than 10 households in the village have had their homes demolished so far, Xu said.