Disputes over illegal land seizures in China have become the country’s dominant form of social unrest in recent years and constitute one of the thorniest problems currently facing the country’s leaders.

The Shandong story erupted one night, late in March in a village in Pingdu County,  when five men set fire to a tent on village land in which four residents were sleeping, according to an account published by the respected news magazine Caixin. The fire reportedly killed one and left the other three injured, two critically.