When they started to construct a Honda showroom on the old cabbage patch, Mrs Wang's patience snapped. She joined the front line of a demonstration and was arrested by the police. It was the act that finally pushed her into the legal system, though not in the way she wanted. She spent 15 days in detention...The past year has seen what is probably the biggest surge of rural violence since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. In Shanwei, Guangdong province, paramilitary police killed three villagers to put down a demonstration by more than 1,000 people. In Dingzhou, Hebei province, seven people were killed by guns and bombs in a battle between villagers and gangs hired by developers...In this and countless other cases, the spark for the conflict was the same: land seizures that made local officials rich and left dispossessed peasants fuming about injustice.