Two Chinas

Two Chinas
"In China City, Protestors See Pollution Risk of New Plant" by Edward Wong

The more I read, the larger the gap between urban and rural segments of Chinese society seems. Earlier, I had written about some of the environmental concerns involving the Yellow River. Aside from the pollution, there is the upsetting image of the complete loss of power on the part of those affected. There seems to be no organized large-scale protests and/or demonstrations.

Contrast that sense of almost inevitability to a recent New York Times article concerning a relatively large anti-pollution protest in Beijing. The protest is, for me, a positive sign. We have seen so many instances when the Chinese did not protest, that I was glad to see hundreds of people meeting to demonstrate against the building of a new state run petrochemical plant ($5.5 billion dollars worth of plant!). The protest was interesting for a number of reasons. First, its organization depended upon modern technology. The group was “organized through Web sites, blogs and cell phone 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.” Clearly this is technology not readily available to most farmers fighting to keep their land clear and to ward off the pollution and slow death of the Yellow River. Second, those involved were protesting against building the plant so close to a large urban center. Perhaps moving the plant out to the country where it can only affect the environment and the farmers is a better idea? Seems like a doubly whammy for the rural population and yet one more example of the every-widening disconnect between rural and urban China. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/world/asia/06china.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin