Frequent occurrence of land expropriation disputes in rural areas of China has attracted attention of scholars to study causes. Most existing studies discuss causes from “structure-institution” level. In other words, land expropriation disputes are caused by existing imperfect institutions, regulations, and policies. Such analysis model points institutional causes, but pays little attention to policy implementation process, especially the subjective initiative of parties concerned. This paper described a decade-long land expropriation dispute case in detail. Through description of event and process and survey of reasons of actors, it revealed factors resulting in occurrence and upgrade of dispute, and analyzed factors and their interactions with the aid of Smith Process Model.