Chinese Incinerator Plan Cancelled After Thousands Join Protests

- by Mimi Lau, April 9, 2015, South Chi­na Morn­ing Post

A west­ern Guang­dong city has can­celled a plan to build an incin­er­a­tor that prompt­ed a protest — of up to 10,000 peo­ple on some accounts — dur­ing which three police cars were flipped and a duty office vandalised.

Luod­ing city gov­ern­ment post­ed two let­ters on its web­site on Wednes­day announc­ing the deci­sion. One informed the Lang­tang town­ship gov­ern­ment that it had decid­ed to can­cel the project, which Lang­tang had bro­kered with Chi­na Resources Cement Hold­ings. The sec­ond urged res­i­dents to stop block­ing roads, van­dal­is­ing prop­er­ty or dis­turb­ing pub­lic order.

The deci­sion came after res­i­dents of the town engaged in a defi­ant stand-off with police on Tues­day, in protest against what they said was the vio­lent han­dling of a peace­ful sit-in against the incin­er­a­tor on Monday.

“Peo­ple are angry with the site selec­tion of the incin­er­a­tor as it is with­in a 1km radius of peo­ple’s homes,” said one young res­i­dent. “The cement fac­to­ry is pro­duc­ing enough pol­lu­tion, we don’t need anoth­er polluter.”

Res­i­dents said about 1,000 locals turned up to Mon­day’s sit-in, which took place out­side a cement fac­to­ry owned by Chi­na Resources. They claim demon­stra­tors were beat­en by more than 100 men dressed in black and armed with batons, hel­mets and shields. They say the men were a mix of police­men and secu­ri­ty guards.

“My nephew is only 14 and is suf­fer­ing from con­cus­sion after he was beat­en by the men with batons,” said one resident.

“It was very bru­tal and total­ly unnec­es­sary to use such force against unarmed civil­ians dur­ing a peace­ful and ratio­nal demon­stra­tion, espe­cial­ly as they attacked chil­dren too.”

The clash at Mon­day’s sit-in protest trig­gered the larg­er protest on Tues­day, which res­i­dents say involved about 10,000 locals.

Luod­ing city gov­ern­ment claimed only 400 res­i­dents had tak­en part in Tues­day’s stand­off and denied any had been injured.

It said on Mon­day “a small num­ber of trou­ble­mak­ers insti­gat­ed the crowd” to block roads and throw rocks at fac­to­ry staff.

Police arrest­ed the “trou­ble­mak­ers” but 400 oth­ers gath­ered the next day, with some throw­ing rocks and glass bot­tles and van­dal­is­ing police cars and the duty office, it said.