NIMBY protest hits Chengdu

Following last year’s anti PX factory protests in Xiamen in June and the anti Maglev protests in Shanghai earlier this year, residents of Chengdu in Sichuan Province took to the streets last weekend. From The New York Times:

Residents took to the streets of a provincial capital over the weekend to protest a multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant backed by China’s leading state-run oil company, in the latest instance of popular discontent over an environmental threat in a major city.

The protest, against a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, reflected a surge in environmental awareness by urban, middle-class Chinese determined to protect their health and the value of their property.

The recent protest, which was peaceful, was organized through Web sites, blogs and cellphone text messages, illustrating how some Chinese are using digital technology to start civic movements, which are usually banned by the police. Organizers also used text messages to publicize their cause nationally.

The protesters walked calmly through downtown Chengdu for several hours on Sunday afternoon to criticize the building of a combined ethylene plant and oil refinery in Pengzhou, 18 miles northwest of the city center. Some protesters wore white masks over their mouths to evoke the dangers of pollution. About 400 to 500 protesters took part in the march, witnesses said.

Organizers circumvented a national law that requires protesters to apply for a permit by saying they were only out for a “stroll.”

The use of the Internet and SMS, and the semantic game of calling the protest a “stroll” (散步) rather than a “demonstration” (游行) are both tactics used successfully by the Xiamen and Shanghai demonstrators. Also similar is the middle class, NIMBY (not in my backyard) nature of the protests.