SHANGHAI (AP) – Police in China’s financial hub Shanghai took away at least three busloads of environmental protesters outside the city government Saturday, preventing the latest rally that started with a rumor that a petrochemical plant could move into the area.
Concerned with public health, the more affluent Chinese are increasingly taking to the streets to oppose potentially hazardous projects such as petrochemical plants, but authorities have responded by trying to suppress the assemblies that have in the past gone violent and weakened the authority of local governments.
In the latest case, thousands of residents in the Shanghai suburban district of Jinshan have been protesting outside the district government this week following the rumor about a plant moving into their neighborhood. Shanghai authorities have dismissed it as untrue.
Still skeptical, the residents planned to protest outside the municipal government in central Shanghai on Saturday, but the venue was heavily guarded by police.
Busloads of protesters were hauled away, and scuffles broke out with police.