MCLC: Ningbo officials back down

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Ningbo officials back down
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (10/28/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/world/asia/protests-against-sinopec-plant
-in-china-reach-third-day.html

Protests Over Chemical Plant Force Chinese Officials to Back Down
By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — Officials in the coastal city of Ningbo, China, promised on
Sunday night to halt the expansion of a petrochemical plant after
thousands of demonstrators clashed with the police during three days of
protests that spotlighted the public’s mounting discontent with industrial
pollution.

The protests, which followed similar demonstrations in other cities in the
past year, point to the increasing willingness of the Chinese to take to
the streets despite the perils of openly challenging the country’s
authoritarian government.

Although local officials were undoubtedly alarmed by the size and ferocity
of the protests, their decision to bend so quickly was also probably
influenced by the coming series of meetings that will determine China’s
next generation of leaders. The ruling Communist Party, always eager to
keep a lid on public discontent, is especially nervous about any
disruptions that might mar the 18th Party Congress, which is set to begin
on Nov. 8 in the capital and will serve to ratify the first change of
leadership in a decade.

But Ningbo residents reached by phone said they were skeptical of the
government’s sudden change of heart. “The announcement is just a way to
ease tensions,” said Yu Xiaoming, a critic of the plant who took part in
negotiations with the authorities on Sunday.

The protests, which began last week when farmers blocked a road near the
refinery, grew over the weekend as thousands of students and middle-class
residents converged on a downtown square carrying handmade banners and
wearing surgical masks painted with skull and bones.

On Saturday, the demonstrations turned violent when riot police fired tear
gas and began to beat and drag away protesters. At one point, according to
people who were there, marchers tossed bricks and bottles at the police.
At least 100 people were detained, according to some estimates, although
most were later released.

The project, an $8.8 billion expansion of a refinery owned by the
state-run behemoth Sinopec, was eagerly backed by the local government,
which has been promoting a vast industrial zone outside Ningbo
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/business/worldbusiness/09iht-bridge.1.65
61774.html>, a city of 3.4 million people in Zhejiang Province. Residents
were particularly unnerved by one major component of the project: the
production of paraxylene, a toxic petrochemical known as PX that is a
crucial ingredient in the manufacture of polyester, paints and plastic
bottles. Many residents contend that the concentration of polluting
factories in the Ningbo Chemical Industrial Zone has led to a surge in
cancer and other illnesses.

While mass demonstrations against mining operations, copper smelters and
trash incinerators have disrupted Chinese cities in recent years, the
construction of paraxylene plants has been especially controversial. In
2007, protesters in the coastal city of Xiamen, in Fujian Province,
successfully forced the relocation of a PX plant that had been planned
just 10 miles from downtown. Last August, officials in Dalian, in
northeast China, announced that they would shut down a PX plant there
after thousands of residents angrily confronted the riot police. That
factory is still operating.

Ma Jun, an environmental activist in Beijing, applauded the government’s
sudden about-face but said he hoped the weekend of unrest would convince
Chinese leaders that soliciting public opinion on industrial development
is in their best interest, especially given how much money is wasted when
such projects are canceled midway.

“We’ve seen the same pattern over and over again,” said Mr. Ma, the
director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. “Ignoring
public concerns leads to confrontation. We can’t resolve all our
environmental issues through street action. The cost is just too high.”

Despite the best efforts of government censors, many of the protests have
been fueled by social media. In Ningbo, residents held aloft smartphones
and computer tablets and flooded microblog sites with images and vivid
descriptions of the running battles with the police. The Chinese news
media carried no reports of the protests.

In recent days, the district government of Zhenhai, which includes Ningbo,
one of China’s most affluent cities, tried to reassure residents, saying
the plant would include the latest pollution-control technologies.
Officials also said they had spent nearly $1 billion to relocate 9,800
households away from the refinery site.

In a brief statement posted on the government’s Web site on Sunday,
officials said they decided to cancel the PX plant after consulting with
investors. They also pledged to conduct “scientific verifications” on
other elements of the project, although they provided no further detail.

The announcement appears to have done little to mollify popular anger.
According to The Associated Press, an official who read the statement
through a loudspeaker on Sunday evening was drowned out by the crowd,
which then called on the mayor to resign and demanded the release of
protesters who had been detained.

Later in the evening, several people posting on Sina Weibo, a popular
microblog service, said the police were arresting students at Ningbo
University and protesters on the street who had refused to disperse. The
accounts could not be verified.

Patrick Zuo contributed research.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 29, 2012

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated
the timing of an announcement by officials in Dalian. They announced that
they would shut down a PX plant there in August of last year, not this
year.