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A Third Day of Protests in China Against Refinery Protests Over Chemical Plant Force Chinese Officials to Back Down
(about 2 hours later)
BEIJING — Hundreds of people protesting the planned expansion of a petrochemical plant in the Chinese port city of Ningbo swarmed the city center for a third day on Sunday, at one point tossing water bottles at riot police officers outside a government building, according to several people who took part in the demonstrations. BEIJING — Officials in the coastal city of Ningbo, China, promised on Sunday night to halt the expansion of a petrochemical plant after thousands of demonstrators clashed with the police during three days of protests that spotlighted the public’s mounting discontent with industrial pollution.
Although the crowds were smaller than on Friday and Saturday, when thousands clashed with the police, resulting in scores of arrests and at least a dozen injuries, hundreds of protesters managed on Sunday to evade roadblocks and police cordons aimed at keeping people from gathering in the center. The protesters, wearing masks and carrying banners that said “We want to survive,” were seeking to stop the expansion of a state-run Sinopec plant,which is already one of China’s largest refineries. The protests, which followed similar demonstrations in other cities in the past year, point to the increasing willingness of the Chinese to take to the streets despite the perils of openly challenging the country’s authoritarian government.
On Sunday, the government promised to cancel the expansion. But there were few details, and protesters met the announcement with skepticism, vowing to continue the demonstrations. Although local officials were undoubtedly alarmed by the size and ferocity of the protests, their decision to bend so quickly was also probably influenced by the coming series of meetings that will determine China’s next generation of leaders. The ruling Communist Party, always eager to keep a lid on public discontent, is especially nervous about any disruptions that might mar the 18th Party Congress, which is set to begin on Nov. 8 in the capital and will serve to ratify the first change of leadership in a decade.
Residents, citing environmental concerns, have been demanding that the government move the plant from Ningbo, a prosperous city of 3.4 million people in Zhejiang Province, near Shanghai. But Ningbo residents reached by phone said they were skeptical of the government’s sudden change of heart. “The announcement is just a way to ease tensions,” said Yu Xiaoming, a critic of the plant who took part in negotiations with the authorities on Sunday.
During a confrontation outside the district government office on Sunday, the throng chanted slogans, made obscene gestures and demanded that the mayor address the crowd, according to people who were there. At one point, the riot police descended on the crowd, tearing down protest banners and dragging at least three people away, they said. The protests, which began last week when farmers blocked a road near the refinery, grew over the weekend as thousands of students and middle-class residents converged on a downtown square carrying handmade banners and wearing surgical masks painted with skull and bones.
The clashes are occurring at a delicate time for the governing Communist Party as it prepares for a once-a-decade change in leadership that is scheduled to begin Nov. 8 during a weeklong series of meetings in Beijing. Public concerns about industrial pollution have become a problem for the government, which often backs economic growth over public concerns about the environment. On Saturday, the demonstrations turned violent when riot police fired tear gas and began to beat and drag away protesters. At one point, according to people who were there, marchers tossed bricks and bottles at the police. At least 100 people were detained, according to some estimates, although most were later released.
In recent years, educated residents of China’s cities have harnessed social media to promote street protests against the construction or expansion of factories, mines and refineries. Although such demonstrations are illegal, and the organizers face arrest, the protests sometimes have the desired effect. The project, an $8.8 billion expansion of a refinery owned by the state-run behemoth Sinopec, was eagerly backed by the local government, which has been promoting a vast industrial zone outside Ningbo, a city of 3.4 million people in Zhejiang Province. Residents were particularly unnerved by one major component of the project: the production of paraxylene, a toxic petrochemical known as PX that is a crucial ingredient in the manufacture of polyester, paints and plastic bottles. Many residents contend that the concentration of polluting factories in the Ningbo Chemical Industrial Zone has led to a surge in cancer and other illnesses.
In July, officials in Shifang, a city in the southwestern province of Sichuan, canceled plans for a copper smelter after tens of thousands of residents joined protests that turned violent. In September 2011, a solar energy company in Jiaxing, near Shanghai, was closed after demonstrators cited noxious chemicals used in the manufacturing process. And in August of that year, officials in Dalian, in northeastern China, said a petrochemical plant would be closed and relocated after at least 12,000 people took to the streets, although the plant remains in operation. While mass demonstrations against mining operations, copper smelters and trash incinerators have disrupted Chinese cities in recent years, the construction of paraxylene plants has been especially controversial. In 2007, protesters in the coastal city of Xiamen, in Fujian Province, successfully forced the relocation of a PX plant that had been planned just 10 miles from downtown. In August, officials in Dalian, in northeast China, announced that they would shut down a PX plant there after thousands of residents angrily confronted the riot police. That factory is still operating.
In a statement, the Zhenhai district government condemned those it blamed for organizing sit-ins and blocking roads in Ningbo but insisted that public sentiment would be taken into consideration before the start of construction. Ma Jun, an environmental activist in Beijing, applauded the government’s sudden about-face but said he hoped the weekend of unrest would convince Chinese leaders that soliciting public opinion on industrial development is in their best interest, especially given how much money is wasted when such projects are canceled midway.
“Detailed information will be published when environmental reviews are implemented, and public opinions on the project will be heeded,” the statement said. “We’ve seen the same pattern over and over again,” said Mr. Ma, the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. “Ignoring public concerns leads to confrontation. We can’t resolve all our environmental issues through street action. The cost is just too high.”
Residents have expressed concern about the refinery’s production of ethylene and paraxylene, known as PX, a toxic petrochemical used in plastics, paints and cleaning solvents. The demonstrations, which began on Monday when 200 farmers blocked a road near the district government’s office, according to the state news media, grew larger on Friday, after student organizers were said to have issued calls through social media outlets. Despite the best efforts of government censors, many of the protests have been fueled by social media. In Ningbo, residents held aloft smartphones and computer tablets and flooded microblog sites with images and vivid descriptions of the running battles with the police. The Chinese news media carried no reports of the protests.
Photographs of the weekend demonstrations, many taken by cellphone, appeared to show officers swinging clubs as they chased protesters or beat those who had fallen. Censors worked quickly to delete images and witnesses’ accounts that were posted on Sina Weibo, China’s popular microblogging service. The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong said 10 people had been injured after the police fired tear gas and moved to break up the protests. In recent days, the district government of Zhenhai, which includes Ningbo, one of China’s most affluent cities, tried to reassure residents, saying the plant would include the latest pollution-control technologies. Officials also said they had spent nearly $1 billion to relocate 9,800 households away from the refinery site.
By Sunday, several Ningbo residents reported that they were unable to send photographs from cellphones or tablets. The state-run news media ignored the protests — except for a brief item in The Ningbo Daily, which declared that the authorities’ commitment to seeking public opinion on the project. In a brief statement posted on the government’s Web site on Sunday, officials said they decided to cancel the PX plant after consulting with investors. They also pledged to conduct “scientific verifications” on other elements of the project, although they provided no further detail.
In a series of online posts on Saturday, Chen Yaojun, a local lawyer, described how the police had quickly tackled and dragged away protesters who dared to chant slogans. He said he, too, had been arrested after he tried to protect a young student who was being beaten by the police. After he was dragged into a police van, Mr. Chen said, he talked to an officers who expressed regret for the rough handling of the protesters. “We have no choice,” he quoted the officer as saying. The announcement appears to have done little to mollify popular anger. According to The Associated Press, an official who read the statement through a loudspeaker on Sunday evening was drowned out by the crowd, which then called on the mayor to resign and demanded the release of protesters who had been detained.
Yu Xiaoming, a local resident who said he had been among 12 people selected to talk to the government on Sunday, said the meeting had not gone well. He said officials had frequently cut off the participants — among them several chemical engineering experts — as they tried to make their case, and warned them to be careful about what they said in public. Later in the evening, several people posting on Sina Weibo, a popular microblog service, said the police were arresting students at Ningbo University and protesters on the street who had refused to disperse. The accounts could not be verified.
“I barely started to speak when they interrupted me, asking me to say something positive about the project,” Mr. Yu said in a telephone interview. “People are angry at the government. This project will wipe out our children.”
 

Patrick Zuo contributed research.

Patrick Zuo contributed research.