"Two Held After Thousands Clash With Chinese Police Over Land Dispute", 13 November 2014

…Around 3,000 residents of three villages in Wushi township near the port city of Zhanjiang, Guangdong province took to the streets…after officials and construction teams moved in and cleared the land suddenly without any warning or compensation, a resident…told...The authorities sent hundreds of armed police and local officials to the scene, but the situation escalated further after police detained two protesters…A second Namao resident…said local people were also worried about reports that authorities are planning to build a coal-fired power station on the land. "The main issue is the pollution, but the other problem is that the local government has given out very little in compensation," he said. He said the government’s offer of 30,000 yuan (U.S. $4,900) per mu (one-sixth of an acre) wasn't enough for the loss of land that had supported many of the local families for generations…Calls to the Wushi township government offices rang unanswered during office hours on Thursday…The requisitioning of rural land for lucrative property deals by cash-hungry local governments triggers thousands of "mass incidents" across China every year, as do protests against pollution or feared pollution. Many result in violent suppression, the detention of the main organizers, and intense pressure on the local population to comply with the government's wishes.