Governments toughen stance on environmental protesters amid Kunming, Chengdu actions
Concerns over social stability sidelined as authorities view 'economic growth' as priority
Growth-obsessed local governments have become more sophisticated at handling rising environmental protests on the mainland, as recent cases against controversial chemical projects in southwestern cities Kunming and Chengdu show.
After two street protests in Kunming this month against a controversial petroleum refinery and a related chemical plant producing paraxylene - a suspected carcinogen - residents in the Yunnan provincial capital have yet to call it a victory, as a double-faced Kunming government promises to heed public opinion while simultaneously scrambles to muzzle protesters.
I expect the refinery to be called off...social stability is the priority now
In Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan, a planned protest against a PX project in nearby Pengzhou on May 4 was thwarted after authorities pre-emptively sealed off several landmarks in the city, with police claiming their large presence was part of an earthquake drill.
In both cases, the city governments have not made final decisions on the fates of the projects. But such practices already signaled a breakaway from a previous pattern of government response to mass environmental demonstrations that emerged over the past years, where local authorities would swiftly succumb to public pressure and scrap the controversial projects.
Since 2007, all previous protests against PX plants in cities of Xiamen , Dalian and Ningbo were ended with local governments backtracking and agreeing to either cancel or relocate the projects, as the public feared pollution from producing the chemical - used in making fabrics and plastic bottles - could cause cancer.
Two other industrial projects - a wastewater pipeline and a heavy-metal smelting plant - were also called off following demonstrations last year. With environmental protests becoming a major cause of social unrest on the mainland, the decisions were once hailed as indicators of governments' increasing willingness to heed the public voice.
However, such a pattern may no longer apply to governments of less-developed western cities - which have a stronger urge to grow their economy in the national "go west" campaign.