(Reuters) – A Chinese city scrapped plans for a copper alloy plant on Tuesday after three days of protests by residents who feared it would poison them, in the latest unrest spurred by environmental concerns in the world’s second-largest economy.
The government of Shifang in the southwest Sichuan province, which initially said it would only suspend the project by Shanghai-listed Sichuan Hongda, caved in to pressure and announced the project would be stopped.
“The molybdenum-copper alloy factory will no longer be built in Shifang city,” it said in a statement on its official Sina Weibo microblogging site.
“At present, the … mass incident has basically be bought under control, and the majority of people have dispersed,” it added, using a common government term for protests.
Protests turned violent on Monday when tens of thousands of residents stormed the city government headquarters, smashed police cars and clashed with thousands of anti-riot police, according to Hong Kong media.
“We have so many people in Shifang. We aren’t afraid of them (the authorities),” an 18-year-old saleswoman, who declined to be identified, told Reuters by telephone from Shifang before the government announcement. “The Shifang people will definitely not surrender.
She accused the police of beating protesters on Monday night. Police were not immediately available for comment.
Chinese environmental campaigners have successfully challenged a number of industrial projects in recent years.
Activists have repeatedly called for greater public consultation in the tightly controlled one-party state where leaders are obsessed with maintaining stability while fostering economic growth.
