http://www.smh.com.au/world/protesters-take-to-the-streets-in-china-over-paper-factory-pollution-20120728-233qv.html
Protesters take to the streets in China over paper factory pollution
Date July 29, 2012
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Riots ... demonstrators clash with police in Qidong. Photo: AP
THOUSANDS of demonstrators protesting against pollution from a paper factory
in eastern China have clashed with police.
The protesters overturned two cars and invaded the local government offices
in the coastal city of Qidong, near Shanghai, an Agence France-Presse
photographer said.
Demonstrators seized bottles of liquor and wine from the offices along with
cartons of cigarettes, items that Chinese officials frequently receive as
bribes.
Battling against pollution ... protesters and police outside the local
government offices in Qidong. Photo: AFP
A photograph posted on Sina Weibo, the main Chinese microblogging service,
showed some of the items displayed outside the government building.
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Thousands of people had gathered in a square in front of the local government
offices and in adjacent streets yesterday morning, with armed police arriving
at the scene at 9am.
Following the clashes, the local police said in their microblog that the
pipeline from the paper mill, which belongs to Japanese company Oji Paper,
would be ''permanently closed'' and called on the demonstrators to go home.
Protests against environmental degradation have increased in China, where
three decades of rapid and unfettered industrial expansion have taken their
toll.
The sewage pipe from the paper mill discharges in the port of Lusi, one of
four fishing harbours in Qidong, one protester, who for safety reasons gave her
name only as Qin, said.
Discharges were set to climb to 150,000 tonnes of sewage a day when the mill
was fully operational, according to residents quoted on Friday by the state-run
Global Times newspaper.
Construction on the mill started in 2007.
Qin said there were 50,000 demonstrators. A microblogger using the name
Qidong Longhuisheng estimated the number at 100,000.
''There are people everywhere, on walls, cars, rooftops, in streets,''
another microblog user, writing under the name Jiaojiaotaotailang, said adding
that ''the air is filled with the smell of alcohol, and there are sounds of
breaking glass''.
Searches including ''Qidong'' were blocked on Saturday on Sina Weibo, which
has more than 250 million users.
Agence France-Presse
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