Among the 153 project EIAs approved by The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) last Friday was one for the Tenglong Aromatic PX Co Ltd 14-billion-yuan (US$204.8 million) project to produce the petrochemical paraxylene in Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province. Does this facility ring a bell? Yes, this is the plant that launched one of the first mass demonstrations in China against the construction of a facility based on environmental concerns. The plant’s move to Zhangzhou City had been forecast as far back as April as last year.
According to Shanghai Daily (this link will die and the story will go behind a subscription wall shortly), “Zhangzhou is across the sea from Xiamen and the new site will be surrounded by a 20-kilometer-wide isolation belt.” That is one big “isolation belt”! China.org.cn reports that 830 million yuan will be devoted to pollution control at the project, and that it will be joined by the construction of a 5-billion yuan PTA factory by Xianglu Petrochemicals (Zhangzhou) Co Ltd. This project’s EIA was also approved on Friday. The PTA company plans to spend 700 million yuan on environmental protection.
There are a couple of other interesting bits in this story. First, you may recall that the Xiamen protest was given some scholarly gravitas by the intervention of Zhao Yufen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at Xiamen University. She and several other academics signed a proposal to move the project out of Xiamen. This apparently did not sit well with the Tenglong Co and it “filed a suit against Zhao and a colleague at Xiamen University, Professor Yuan Dongxing, seeking 2.5 million yuan ((US$365,000) in compensation. That case has been referred to a Xiamen court but there has been no progress reported.”
Second, “The Xiamen government has now reached a consensus with Tenglong’s parent Xianglu Group to relocate the project. It has promised to pay compensation to Xianglu after the decision was approved by the central government.” Huh, why does Xiamen owe any compensation to Xianglu in this matter?
Its clear that Tenglong and its parent Xianglu feel confident enough (that means connected enough) to play hardball. That makes the accomplishments of the citizenry of Xiamen in forcing this move even more remarkable.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Greg // Jan 14, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Well, on paper it sounds like a good idea, especially if they use wetlands to mitigate water pollution and monitoring stations for the air pollution. But it also keeps away pesky locals.
2 Bryan Davis // Jan 14, 2009 at 3:28 pm
The success of the Xiamen citizenry in resisting the new chemical plant has received a lot of attention over the last year. I myself was directed towards it by someone seeking to demonstrate a growing public consciousness of environmental issues. Also, because I studied in Xiamen, the issue was of particular interest.
However, I still wonder what role Xiamen’s wealth and overall importance (as the closest city to Taiwan owned territory) played in getting people’s voices heard.
Is it a sign of democratic resistance to environmental abuse beginning to gather momentum or simply a picky middle class flexing its economic muscle?
3 cmcelwee // Jan 14, 2009 at 5:51 pm
@Greg: you’re getting soft in your old age. I wasn’t aware there was anywhere in coastal China where you could go 20 kilometer without running into someone. I’m conjuring up resettlements.
@ Bryan: good point. I think there are two types of environmental protests in China. The peasant “you have poisoned us for years and not compensated us adequately and the government won’t listen to our complaints so we will have to take matters into our own hands” protests, and the middle class (or at least urban) your proposed project threatens our property values and potentially our health protests. The government is more concerned about the later protests because they are better organized, use more sophisticated communication means, and have the potential for spawning an independent national environmental movement. Turning to your question, I think the answer is “both.” The movements have generally been started by a prickly person in the middle class, but they have been quickly joined and strengthened by those who wish to fight environmental abuse. BTW, do you have an RSS Feed for your blog or can you add one?
4 Greg // Jan 15, 2009 at 1:37 am
I can be soft sitting here in comfy America. Resettlement will likely occur, as well push back from locals.
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