It was the word of drunken officials against the word of a hotel waitress. The official news release: she had stabbed a fun-seeking cadre to death and immediately confessed. Initially, the incident in an out-of-the-way part of Hubei province seemed straightforward.
But nobody, least of all the blundering officials of Badong county, knew what was coming next. Within a week, the 21-year-old waitress, Deng Yujiao , had become the poster girl for millions of mainlanders tired of corrupt and immoral local governments and the lack of justice for ordinary people.