2015-06-26
Shanghai residents protest plans to relocate a PX plant to the city’s Jinshan district, June 25, 2015.
Photo courtesy of an RFA listener
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Shanghai this week, as protests against proposals to relocate a paraxylene (PX) plant to the city’s Jinshan district showed no signs of abating amid calls for a larger protest this weekend.
Photos of Friday’s protest taken from above showed the crowd stretching two or three blocks, while others showed protesters carrying banners through the lamp-lit streets that read: “Give us back our Jinshan! Protect the environment! Stay away from pollution!”
One photo showed a close-packed crowd marching down a street by night, carrying a red banner, part of which read: “Stay away from cancer!”
“This has been going on for five days now, and I am guessing that there are about 50,000 people here today, even more than yesterday, when there were about 40,000,” a Shanghai resident who declined to be named told RFA.
The protests have continued since Monday, in spite of assurances by the Jinshan authorities that no PX plant is planned for Jinshan, which is already home to a chemical industrial park.
Protesters believe that the authorities are planning to relocate an existing PX plant from the Gaoqiao industrial park to Jinshan.
Friday’s protest appeared to go off peacefully, with some police officers visible in photographs, but no clashes, according to the Shanghai resident.
“We are walking very peacefully … Everyone is here to protect their own rights and interests,” the resident told RFA.
“The most important thing is to protect the environment, so we don’t want the government to bring this project here.”
Workers, children join march
Video of Thursday’s protest obtained by RFA showed a large crowd of thousands, including schoolchildren, marching with banners and shouting “Give us back our Jinshan,” accompanied by groups of people riding scooters.
Others chanted: “Go Jinshan!” The crowd marched to the Jinshan district government offices, accompanied but not stopped by police, before marching around adjacent streets, protesters said.