In a grim postscript to the summer of rural unrest that overtook China two years ago, Chen Tao was executed for “deliberately killing” a riot policeman during the demonstration, when 100,000 farmers staged a sit-in against the building of the 186-metre-high Pubugou dam on the Dadu river in Hanyuan county.

The dam was set to flood thousands of people out of their homes and there were complaints that compensation was inadequate. It was one of 74,000 “mass incidents” across the country that year – often-violent protests and riots over land-grabs, illegal pollution and official corruption. … Read the full story.