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Fear, defiance stalk China factory protest town
21 Jul 2005 05:44:59 GMT
Source: Reuters
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By Ben Blanchard XINCHANG, China, July 21 (Reuters) - Xiao Chen can see no way out but to keep up the struggle. Four years after a pharmaceutical plant opened in his small town in the rich eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, he is fed up with the pollution he says it is spewing out, poisoning the river and stunting his crops. "They've arrested so many. But we'll fight on," said the 25-year-old weather-beaten farmer, standing beside a muddy paddy field in the town of Xinchang, which was rocked last weekend by violent protests by farmers demanding the closure of the plant. "What else can we do?" The Jingxin Pharmaceutical Company has been closed since July 4, when a group of villagers stormed it, according to the company, in China's latest rural unrest as Beijing grapples with public anger over corruption and a growing rich-poor divide. The protests against the company, which exports drugs to the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia, turned ugly last weekend when farmers clashed with police called to protect the plant. The firm told Reuters this week there were environmental problems in the area, but blamed it on poor rainfall and rapid industrialisation of Xinchang, a town surrounded by verdant hills better known for monasteries and Buddhist temples. Another riot in the same province in April was also sparked by factory pollution, underscoring the environmental price China is paying for its rapid rise to become the world's seventh-largest economy. Xinchang, a three-hour drive south of Shanghai, is quiet now, the only apparent sign of trouble the boarded-up windows at the factory, a partly destroyed perimeter wall and guard post and huge concrete pipes surrounding the plant acting as a barrier. A large red banner strung along the outside of the plant flutters in the wind, reading: "For your safety, stand back from the police lines". A police convoy of one large bus and several smaller minivans rolled into town on Wednesday to reinforce the squad cars parked discreetly near the factory gates, where the silver lettering of the company's sign lies smashed to pieces on the ground. Some reports put the number of weekend protesters at up to 20,000, but villagers say it was more like hundreds. "The police attacked protesters with sticks," said one old farmer in thickly accented Mandarin, demonstrating with his hands how the blows were struck. "I saw the blood pour down their faces," he said through the stumpy remains of his teeth, before hobbling off to attend to his water buffalo. Police said in a statement this week that the villagers had attacked police barricades and hurled rocks at the factory. POISONED PRODUCE Residents expect more protests, and violence. "I'm very frightened," said a farmer's wife who would only give her surname as Zhou. "It's quietened down now, but I'm sure that won't be for long." Farmers say they have not been offered any compensation for their crops damaged by pollution, aside from an 8 million yuan ($966,600) scheme to bring piped water into their houses which was completed two years ago. They scoff at that, and say it is no substitute for not being able to sell their poisoned produce. "The water in the river is disgusting," said Lao Xia, who took part in the protests. "Every night at 8 p.m. the factory dumps its waste into the water." But the company, which started as a private enterprise but is now listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, blamed the violence on a small band of "hooligans". Farmers, whose fields are just a stone's throw from the factory and who rely on the river running by for irrigation, vow to carry on their struggle until it is closed for good. "There's nothing to be scared of," said Lao Xia, seated outside his run-down house and surrounded by a group of friends nodding their heads in agreement. "There's more of us than them." ($1=8.276 Yuan)
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