Amid signs of division in the government about how to handle rural unrest, the residents of Qianjin village have driven off hundreds of armed police and blocked construction of a motorway they claim is being built through their crops and homes without adequate compensation.

"About 2,000 protesters have surrounded the local government office," a resident, who declined to give her name, told the Guardian by telephone. "They are holding the general secretary and another official."

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The villagers in one of China's poorest provinces say they had been paid only a fraction of the 9,900 yuan (£650) they were promised for each of the 180 mu (about 667 square metres) of land requisitioned for the motorway.

In protest, they halted the work by occupying the building site and seizing construction equipment. Last week they repelled more than 100 police who had been sent in to empty the site and arrest the ringleaders in a six-hour clash.

"The entire village is in a state of anarchy," Han Guowu, the district chief, told Reuters. "Please trust the party and the government."

But such pleas are falling on deaf ears as more and more Chinese peasants take matters into their own hands.

The protest in Qianjin is at least the third since April in which locals have fought, and - at least temporarily - beaten public security forces.

In June six peasants were killed in Shengyou, Hebei province, during a battle with thugs employed by a power company to force them off their land. The government recognised the validity of their dispute, sacked the mayor and promised the villagers that they could keep their property.

Two months earlier the residents of Huankantou, in Zhejiang province, fought off more than 1,000 riot police during a protest about a chemical plant.

Countless other demonstrations go unreported. According to the Ta King-Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper funded by the government, 3.76 million people took part in 74,000 protests last year. They are a symptom of China's growing pains as the one-party political system struggles to keep pace with a supercharged economy.

In many areas, public suspicions about official corruption have been rising along with personal expectations that are often left unfulfilled.

The government's response has been mixed. This month the vice-minister Chen Xiwen condoned the protests as a sign of growing "democratic awareness" among farmers.