Chinese villagers attack factory after reports of polluting

[pampango]

Source: Guardian


The Chinese public are becoming increasingly critical of the fouling of the country’s air, soil and waterways by decades of development.

Villagers in south-western China, infuriated by a factory that was polluting the environment, smashed its offices and equipment and later clashed with police.

Residents of Baha, a village in Yunnan province, said they had grown increasingly angry over a local metalwork factory that had been coughing up black smoke and discharging polluted wastewater into the rural area. After the factory's boss refused to meet with villagers last week, they smashed cars, equipment, offices and dormitories.

Environmental protests are on the rise in China, with the public becoming increasingly critical of the fouling of the country's air, soil and waterways during decades of breakneck development. The unrest poses a serious political challenge to the Communist party – anger over the party's response, or lack thereof, to environmental crises has fuelled wider dissatisfaction with corruption and a lack of official accountability.

Most protests have taken place along China's developed coastal region, reflecting the area's heavy pollution from industry as well as the rising demands of the country's well-off. But the latest unrest was in rural Yunnan, indicating the protest has now spread further inland.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/12/chinese-villagers-factory-polluting-police-baha-attack

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"Environmental protests are on the rise in China" as well they should be. Protests are spreading from urban areas to rural ones.

Wonder what these folks would think of the Elk River chemical spill in West Virginia. I hope our own environmental problems can be addressed without citizen attacks on company offices.