Protests in southern China

Residents of Haimen surrounded a government building and blocked an expressway on Tuesday in their protest against a planned second coal-fired power plant within a kilometer of an already existing one which the residents say is polluting air and seawater and reducing the catch of the fishermen at sea.

According to the official Chinese Xinhua news agency, several hundred people gathered for protests on a highway on Wednesday. Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported that more than 1,000 protesters had gathered at a toll gate to confront hundreds of riot police.

Xinhua reported that police fired four rounds of tear gas shells and beat up the protesters. At least three protesters had been hit and then arrested, the agency reported. A local official confirmed to Reuters by telephone on Thursday that there had been no injuries or deaths.

Officials had already declared late Tuesday that the power plant project was being suspended and that the case was being referred to supervisory authorities, but that does not seem to have convinced the protesters, who are demanding that the project be scrapped altogether.

'Courage to correct mistakes'

Unrest has been on the rise in China in recent months. In Wukan village, also situated in the prosperous province of Guangdong, a 10-day standoff between villagers and the authorities ended on Wednesday after officials offered concessions over seized farmland and agreed to release three protesters who had been arrested. They also promised to release the body of Xue Jinbo, the main organizer of the protest, who had died under disputed circumstances while under arrest.

The conflict between the residents of Wukan village and local officials had been building up for months before bursting into open rioting last September. In its penultimate phase, the conflict took the form of a 10-day standoff after the villagers drove out local Communist Party officials and police blockaded the village. By that time, the conflict had gained international attention.

Ultimately, provincial party officials stepped in to broker a compromise which has been hailed by China's top newspaper The People's Daily: "The initial error of the local government in the Wukan incident was its failure to heed the reasonable demands of the villagers, which escalated reasoned petitioning into excessive actions," the paper said in its commentary. It extolled the provincial government's "political courage to correct mistakes" and described Wukan as "both a typical and a cautionary case."

Author: Arun Chowdhury (Reuters, AFP)
Editor: Sarah Berning