From the Guardian:
Environmental protest in Shifang (AFP/Getty Images)
A Chinese city has released 21 people who were detained after a clash between police and residents protesting against a metals plant they feared would poison them, city officials said on Wednesday. Thousands of people in the south-west city of Shifang took to the streets over the past three days to protest against the government’s plans to allow the building of a copper alloy plant, the latest unrest spurred by environmental concerns in the world’s second-largest economy. The Shifang government said police had “forcibly taken away 27 suspected criminals” on Monday and Tuesday for tearing down the door of the municipal government building, smashing windows and throwing bricks and stones at police and government workers. That prompted a massive sit-in on Tuesday night outside a government office by locals demanding their release. Six are still in police custody, the city government said in a statement on its official Sina Weibo microblogging site.
Full story at The Guardian.
Learn more about environmental activism in China from the documentary Beijing Besieged by Waste.
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