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China’s Leading Blogger/Twitterer’s Words for President Obama
Wen Yunchao (温云超), known by his online name Beifeng (北风), has just been elected Annual Outstanding (Chinese) Twitterer at the Twiscar ceremony, at the just completed Fifth Annual Chinese Blogger conference (CNbloggerCon), in Lianzhou, Guangdong, China. Beifeng, the former blog section editor of Netease, one of China’s largest news portal, also blogs on Bullog.com. He was one of the key citizen bloggers covering the Xiamen PX demonstrations in real time in 2007, and co-organizer of this year’s Chinese Bloggers Conference. His Twitter account has near 8000 followers. (Twitter’s official site is blocked by China’s Great Firewall. However, tens of thousands of Chinese Twitterers are still active, and the number is still growing.)
The following tweets are from Beifeng, translated by CDT:
At the Annual Blogger Conference, I was interviewed by a reporter of the Wall Street Journal about my expectations for President Obama’s visit. I said: There have been some very extreme individual cases of human rights violations in China, I hope President Obama will show his necessary concern. Also, please say this to Chairman Hu: Please tear down the Great Firewall, it interferes with our freedom of speech.
在中文网志年会时，接受WSJ的采访，提及对奥巴马来访的期望，我说：去年中国发生了一些很极端的人权个案，希望奥巴马能给予必要的关注；另外请他对胡锦涛主席说，请拆除国家防火墙，它妨碍了我们的言论自由。
The following photos are from CN Reviews, Shizhao’s blog and Jean Yim’s Flickr:

Hong Kong-based Ming Pao reports on the Chinese bloggers conference.
Click here to see more photos of the Lianzhou Chinese Bloggers Conference, by Shizhao.
Even China’s official English newspaper Global Times reported the Lianzhou Chinese Bloggers Conference. Please read: Bloggers join heads in Guangdong by Zhang Lei.
» Read more
- November 12, 2009 12:09 AM
China Approves Controversial Chemical Plant In New City
From Reuters:
China’s environment ministry has approved a petrochemical plant that drew fierce opposition over feared pollution in one eastern city, approving its construction several miles to the west.
Plans to build the paraxylene plant in Xiamen, Fujian province, faltered in 2007 after residents there mobilized a rare mass campaign over fears of toxins from the petrochemicals, used to make polyester and fabrics.
But now the Ministry of Environmental Protection had passed an environmental impact study to build the petrochemical complex in Zhangzhou, about 50 km (30 miles) west of Xiamen, the official China News Service reported on Tuesday.
The approval means the project, costing about 14 billion yuan ($2 billion), “may move to Zhangzhou,” the report said.
» Read more
- January 13, 2009 11:03 PM
Models, Delegates, And The Latest Spin On PX
Jonathan Ansfield’s most recent Biganzi dispatch:
So great is the Great Hall of the People that there’s always room for a sideshow, even when the national legislature is in session.
Last Friday at 8:50 a.m., a pack of frumpy middle-aged women clambered up the steps toting plastic bags. Any place else they might be pegged for petitioners. Turned out they were support staff for the Chinese modeling agency New Silk Road (新丝路), there for a rehearsal of an annual “Women’s Day” ceremony. “We’re in the show,” boasted one of the older crowd, evidently referring to their younger charges. Soon the jingle-jangle of a made-for-CCTV gala beckoned from the theater above, rebounding through the desolate foyer below. Access was restricted, however; lads in black suits were posted at every elevator and staircase, blocking passage to the second floor. Wu Yi, the models and 1,000 other women from around the world were well-guarded.
Down on the main level the Fujian province delegation was open to the press, and somewhat revealing in its own right. Those reporters who weren’t chasing the upcoming Taiwan presidential elections were checking in on the unbuilt Taiwanese-owned petrochemical project popularly dubbed ‘Xiamen PX’. The name’s fast becoming a misnomer, of course. Since at least December, when citizens balked over an environmental impact assessment of the project’s original ‘hood, Xiamen and Fujian leaders have pushed to jettison the plant from Xiamen down the shore to Gulei peninsula, in the city of Zhangzhou, a strip of fishing villages far less populous and developed. But company bosses along with central government planners administering the project have yet to commit to such a move, which would require a new round of approvals and feasibility studies, construction of new port, power and water facilities, and likely a financial package of fresh concessions and compensation. Any potential move was further complicated by protests the previous weekend one county over from the proposed site, which spiraled into bloody clashes with police.
News of the move Fujian leaders floated in December was first leaked in the Ta Kung Pao, immediately refuted in the Wen Wei Po, only to be picked up in Southern Weekend. It then permeated indirectly in progressive media paeans to Xiameners’ coup. But this was the first time key Fujian figures involved faced the press over it since that time.

Reuters coverage captures the gist of their comments. Interestingly, Xinhua and other Chinese outlets put a rather populist and placatory spin on their comments, in contrast to the shifty, patronizing tone one might have gleaned from the whole exchange, excerpts of which are roughly translated below.
Fujian officials have been caught in a bind: between, on the one hand, continued external pressures to allay public fears and, on the other, sources contend, internal criticism for bungling the blowback there and helping spur a rash of protests over other projects elsewhere. As such they hedged conservatively. They sounded shifty and abrasive. They made it seem only natural and self-evident that while the project was sound, its present location in Xiamen no longer was. They soft-pedaled on the media and popular dissent that forced them to adopt that posture and skipped entirely over the misguided planning in the area that played into the controversy to start. And most ominously, they defended the Gulei site in practically the same passive-aggressive manner they once had Xiamen.
It was right here in Beijing one year ago that the whole to-do over the petrochemical project first caught the glare of Chinese press, when the Taiwan-born Xiamen U. biochemist and CCPPC delegate Zhao Yufen filed an incendiary proposal to uproot the project. Zhao did not land a new term this year.
The PX affair did come up in conversation among the Fujian NPCers last week, according to one Fuzhou-based journalist tagging along with the delegation. But it was not an agenda item, he explained, since there was nothing conclusive to discuss. “It’s leaving Xiamen is for sure, but whether it’s going to Zhangzhou [city] has not been resolved.”
Journalists at the session had the tea to thank for the first trickle of official comment. Among those to succomb to urinary pressures was the mayor of Zhangzhou, Li Jianguo (pictured below). After he relieved himself he was cornered with ease, and quizzed about the protests in his jurisdiction:
“Because right now this PX project is rather sensitive, so we have not said it’s going to land in Zhangzhou. There’s only this intention, an intention is all.
“Now, about this project… It’s a good project. The project itself does not have any problems. That’s the first point. The second point is that for it to come to Zhangzhou, Zhangzhou should be able to accommodate it, because the conditions and environment are all okay, so that if you’re talking about a petrochemical project on Gulei peninsula, it should be acceptable. If it’s not PX, then other petrochemical projects could be accommodated as well.”
Li Jianguo
This correspondent asked him how the protests across the water on Dongshan Island would affect the recommended move.
“The main problem is, because the masses basically do not get what PX is, and are unclear about it, and we’ve had relatively little contact with this sort of thing, so correct guidance is needed on these moves. Because if you look overseas, there are a lot of PX [plants]. Like in Singapore, there is only a little over 600 metres between the plant equipment and [city areas].”
Li was soon rescued from the scrum by a publicity flak.
Later, during the official Q&A, this correspondent asked Fujian Party Secretary Lu Zhangong for an update on the state of the project. He let Xiamen mayor Liu Cigui (pictured below) have the first crack.
Lu Zhangong
Liu Cigui
Liu turned straight to this correspondent. “Have you been to Xiamen?” he asked sharply. (I told him I had.) Liu had been among the more conciliatory official voices as opposition toward the project swelled in May, which is not necessarily saying much. Clearly he had settled back into bureaucrat mode. Liu gave a long-winded sketch of Xiamen’s transformation the past three decades on the back of double-digit growth patterns.
“So Xiamen’s positioning [today] is as a modernized, scenic, tourist port city. This PX project that you just mentioned is a petrochemical project. It should be said that this is a good project – that is for sure. [But] because the period from the time efforts to win the project were initiated to the time construction began was relatively long, we’ve been required to give added consideration to speed and quality as Xiamen developed, and to Xiamen’s function and positioning.”
Space was constricted in Xiamen, noted Liu, because half the land is mountainous and another part national preserve. Tourism and ports were bustling as well. Hence Xiamen was become more of a financial, R&D, logistics and convention center, and the district of Haicang, originally zoned for petrochemicals, had to cater to the development of high-end service industry. He made but passing mention of the environmental re-assessment from an official academy in Beijing.
“Because of this, we’ve recommended this project — because after all it is just a project, right? So the media have hyped this a good deal. Because Xiamen is a sensitive area, so perhaps for a beautiful city like Xiamen the degree of attention everybody pays is relatively high. Naturally it should not have gotten to this extent. Because I’ve come across a lot of media and they all want to ask me about it. So I feel that the degree of attention on Xiamen, as a beautiful city, is relatively high. And we do thank the the media, too — so at the moment…the city government holds that this project, this good project, can go some place in Fujian province that is more suitable, more spacious. Because [in the original location] it has only a scale of 800,000 tonnes [in yearly output] and cannot possibly develop further. So there’s no room for even the project itself to extend and broaden its line. Therefore, in order to build the petrochemical industry stronger and bigger, because the petrochemical industry is still very much in need on the western coast [of the South China Sea] and across our country, we recommend this project not be built in Haicang but somewhere else in the province with more space. So right now we’re negotiating with the owners, and in accordance with procedures, reporting to higher authorities. I think we’re heading in a satisfactory direction to develop. Thank you.”
The aloof account from Liu seemed to amuse Lu, who sniggered. “Heh, heh…This matter was very simple to start with. But then they messed back and forth with it and made it very complicated.”
Who Lu meant by “they” was unclear.
Liu sniggered back. “It was just a project, naturally.”
Now it was Lu’s turn. He was careful to bring up to date what had gone wrong without delving into specifics or assigning blame. He maintained there had been geographical “confusion” (in the media, presumably) between the main island of Xiamen and the greater city area where the plant was to be located. After Xiamen became a Special Economic Zone in the early 1980’s, he noted, Haicang peninsula was formally zoned for Taiwanese investment and petrochemical development (officially in 1990-91, when the intended beneficiary was Formosa Plastics).
“But for various reasons, it never became a significant petrochemical zone.”
Over the years, Lu went on, Xiamen’s “situation changed”. It emerged a shipping and high-tech center, and the application process for the PX project dragged on during this time, Lu said. He did not point out that during this five year lag from 2001 to 2006, the local government rezoned Haicang a second city center to accommodate a commercial real estate boom and approved two dozen property projects within two miles of the proposed plant site. He only reiterated the fact that at this point there was little space to spare.
“For example, this project could be placed there. But to turn this project into a petrochemical district, a petrochemical base, would be difficult. There’s no leftover land to develop further. So Xiamen people were correct to have complaints. At the time, then, the Xiamen people had complaints. That had to do with Xiamen’s function and positioning.”
Lu ran down the tick-tock of how the local government had suspended the project and ordered an independent environmental survey, but did not specifically mention popular protests. He reiterated that there was nothing wrong with the project itself and again cited the example of Singapore. But he came back to the changes in Xiamen.
“So as it happened, based on the relevant objections of the people, and with this shift, whereby Xiamen settled upon adjusting its function, it raised this recommendation [to relocate the PX factory on Gulei peninsula] – right now it can only be said that it’s a recommendation, and nothing else has been carried out – Fujian province wishes to agree with Xiamen’s opinion, because this place Xiamen is too small.”
His point was that the most recent protests flared prematurely.
“Before the move is set, first the national government must agree to you relocating. Two, the company’s choice must be respected. If it chooses Fujian, fine, but it could choose not to be in Fujian. It might want to go somewhere else…Right now we have no idea about any these things, but there are some people [fighting the move] with all they’ve got. So now there basically aren’t any clear problems, but because of various factors, some of the masses are still reacting with accusations. The place where they’re reacting in Zhangzhou, Dongshan — hah, hah — this has even less to do with Dongshan.”
For an instant he was choked up in awkwardly jittery laughter.
“…Now it’s already being dealt with appropriately.”
Lu called on the Zhangzhou mayor, Li Jianguo. Li asserted Zhangzhou’s capability to build a port to support the petrochemical trade on Gulei peninsula:
“My meaning is, if there were a good project like this that could be situated on Gulei peninsula, we would very much welcome it, and could undertake it. Right now, we have this intention, but because this intention has not entered into something substantive, it’s only an intention. But if this intention is for real, we also would very much welcome it.”
Added Li:
“But most recently, there are certain individuals, whether over the Internet or through other means, individual people who are not very welcoming. What’s the main problem here? There’s a kind of misunderstanding. Where’s the misunderstanding? The misunderstanding is that if [the project] moves to Zhangzhou it will have such and such an impact — there’s this misunderstanding here. In addition, there’s a misunderstanding of this project. Is this project alright or not? In truth this project is very good.”
Again he returned to the example of a major petrochemical base in Singapore. “At its nearest it’s only 650 meters away from the metropolitan area. Everywhere in the world has [such sites]….”
Lu cut in. “And America.”
Li: “Right.”
Lu: “That petrochemical base in America, its scale is much bigger still.”
Li: “That petrochemical base in America, what’s that place called? How big is the scale of the refinery? 100 million tonnes [a year], and it’s also very close to the metropolitan area.”
Lu chimed back: “This is just a misunderstanding. Right now the people, their environmental awareness is getting stronger and stronger. This should be fully endorsed. This is a goal of ours, too.”
Li turned to a reporter from Hong Kong’s Singtao Daily. “Just now one of our journalists here, when I stepped out, he asked me something. I want to correct you once more. This journalist here asked me question, saying, ‘Xiamen did not want this PX project.’ I want to correct that. You can’t say Xiamen did not want it. As I just was saying, and Mayor Liu was saying too: This is a good project. Everybody was fighting to win it.”
The chamber fell silent for a few seconds before Lu prompted the next question.
» Read more
- March 14, 2008 10:47 PM
Two Letters That Plant Protests
Biganzi’s Jonathan Ansfield sends in his latest dispatch:
Anti-PX marches on Dongshan Island two weeks ago were a country cousin to the urbane “strolls” last year in downtown Xiamen. The protest burst into a rumble, as often occurs down in the sticks, only to be smothered just as fast by riot police and a media blackout. Still the resemblance to Xiamen was strong.
The demonstrations in Dongshan sprouted from national press reports – of a shadowy Fujian government proposal to relocate the forsaken Xiamen petrochemical project nearby – and grew from the volley of spitballs in local neighborhoods and chatrooms. Opposition took about as long to gestate into action (two-and-a-half months), drew a comparable number of citizens (as many as ten thousand, as few as two), and relied on ample logistical support from the local business community. And as in Xiamen, where one young protester was bagged for taking it to the streets before everyone else did, there were false starts as well.
» Read more
- March 13, 2008 8:38 AM
In China, Protesters Clash With Police Over Dangerous Factory
The peaceful resolution to the Xiamen PX protests doesn’t seem to be so peaceful after all. From the Washington Post:
Violent protests erupted in several southern Chinese fishing towns after residents heard a chemical factory rejected as environmentally dangerous by the nearby city of Xiamen would be built in their area instead, witnesses and other residents said Monday.
The protesters, who began their uprising peacefully on Thursday, clashed repeatedly with baton-wielding police Friday and Saturday in several towns on the Gulei Peninsula, about 50 miles south of Xiamen on the Taiwan Strait, the witnesses and residents said. A dozen people were injured and carried away for treatment in local hospitals, and about 15 were arrested, according to demonstrators and their family members.
Many articles in Chinese cyberspace about the Dongshan protests have been deleted by the government censors, such as here, here and here. However, overseas Chinese websites already republished some of the contents, including photos and video clips.
Photo source: United Daily News
» Read more
- March 3, 2008 4:25 PM
Shanghai Stops Maglev Protests, but Smaller Forms of Protest Go On
Seems public grumblings continue amongst the displaced and dissatisfied at the epicenter of China’s growth, from Peijin Chen at Shanghaiist:
A group of Shanghai residents who had applied to the government for the right to hold an anti-maglev protest were rejected by the government. Despite this, small numbers of them intended to go on another “walk” in order to publicly air their grievances. This time, they were stopped by some other residents…
On the other hand, while we were out yesterday afternoon we did notice some “protest banners” up at 612 Nanjing Xi Lu, near all those ritzy shopping centers. The residents of the small lane complain that the unabated construction that has left them hemmed in by towering office and commercial buildings has adversely affected the physical structure of their homes.
Perhaps most interesting, both the maglev and Nanjing Lu protests have grown out of what Peijin calls a larger homeowners movement, which itself appears to take inspiration from the highly-publicized Xiamen PX protests of last year.
» Read more
- March 2, 2008 9:41 PM
PX Workers Protest, No One Notices (Updated)
The latest from Biganzi’s Jonathan Ansfield, reporting from Xiamen:
Though the people’s coup over paraxylene (PX) in Xiamen is not official yet, echoes it are being heard in protests from Nanjing to Shanghai to Beijing. The trend, in turn, is said to have made the Xiamen case much trickier for the central government to close. “They don’t want to provide an example that would set off a chain reaction,” notes one official source in Xiamen, adding: “But it seems a chain reaction’s already underway.”
» Read more
- January 24, 2008 1:27 PM
China’s Rising People Power – Michael Bristow
The BBC looks at the recent Xiamen PX protests as an example of rising people power in China:
The Xiamen protest was different to the thousands of others that take place across China because of who was involved.
The customary groups of poor, uneducated farmers were joined by young, motivated environmentalists, such as Wu Xian.
When he heard about the PX project, he set up an online discussion group and urged Xiamen’s residents to protest against the plant.
A few days before the first demonstration, police arrested the 20-year-old, who is a manager at a local karaoke bar. [Full text]
[Image: Activist Wu Xian, via the BBC]
» Read more
- January 21, 2008 9:06 PM
Common Chinese Have More Say In Policy-making – Xinhua
From Xinhua:
The suspended controversial Xiamen city PX plant probably will not become a landmark wherever it finally stands, but it may have helped lay a cornerstone that boosts ordinary Chinese people’s participation in policy making.
The authorities in Xiamen, east China’s Fujian Province put a paraxylene (PX) plant project, earmarked for Haicang District 16 kilometers from the city center, on hold on May 30 last year.
The decision came after huge pressure from citizens opposed to the project who said it was polluting and potentially dangerous. [Full Text]
Read also Letter from China: A ‘harmonious society’ hearing different notes by Howard French.
» Read more
- January 4, 2008 6:18 AM
People of the Year: Xiameners – Southern Weekend
People of the Year from Southern Weekend for 2007. Translated by CDT:
Some of them are Xiamen natives, some “new” Xiameners who moved to the city within the past 20 years, some found their first jobs in the coastal city. They didn’t know each other, but, for their own and the city’s general interests, they united to fight the PX plant.
Also worthy of note are Xiamen officials, most of whom are city natives. Over half a year, they have gone from vehement resistance (to the protests) to being willing to compromise. People still recall the city’s deputy secretary general Zhu Zilu (朱子鹭) saying, “I disagree with your opinion, but I will fight to death to protect your rights to speak.”
Xiameners may not think they’ve done something earth-shaking, but with luck, their actions may herald the development of a civil society in China. What has happened in Xiamen demonstrates this: In a transitioning China, the expansion of all interests should be brought under control, and in the process of adjusting to accommodate those interests, the courage to resist is undoubtedly worthy of admiration. [Full Text in Chinese]
» Read more
- December 31, 2007 9:07 AM
PXit Strategy – Jonathan Ansfield

From Biganzi’s Jonathan Ansfield:
It appears all but official: Xiamen’s Taiwanese-invested paraxylene (PX) plant is likely to get the boot downshore to Zhangzhou. A precedent for public oversight of the planning process, or a mere perfect storm? Future events will determine the full significance of the punkish-sounding anti-PX campaign. But in the Chinese media, official and non-, positions are already being staked out. Environmental officials and the predominately liberal media are hitting hard, quick and clear, even as the Party establishment seem determined to deliver a muted, diluted and drawn-out official verdict. Helped by this disparity, the story has given off a refreshing whiff of democratic progress for days now. But who ever said the Party gospel of “scientific development” was anything but political science?
» Read more
- December 28, 2007 7:58 AM
The People and Wisdom Changed Xiamen – Zhu Hongjun and Su Yongtong
ESWN has translated an article from Southern Weekend about the planned move of the Xiamen PX project to Zhangzhou City:
On December 14 after the Xiamen PX District Environmental Assessment Forum was held, Xiamen city government deputy secretary-general Zhu Zilu was interviewed by Southern Weekend and he said that the ultimate fate of the PX project rests in the hands of the environmental assessment experts. The decision will be announced “late December, and early January by the latest.”
The PX project investor is Taiwan’s Xianglu Group and its chairman Yu Xinchang told Southern Weekend on the same day that this is a critical juncture and a clear conclusion will be known next week.
But Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao announced on December 18 that the Xiamen PX project will be relocated to the Gulei Peninsula in Zhangzhou city in deference to public opinion, and this changed the picture. [Full text]

For more background on this story, see “Public Opinion Wins in Xiamen” and other previous posts about the project from CDT.
» Read more
- December 21, 2007 7:01 PM
Public Opinion Wins in Xiamen
According to Time China blog, a final decision has been made on the controversial Xiamen PX project: it’s being moved to an island in Fujian Province. Read Simon Elegant’s post here, which declares it a victory of people power in China.
On December 19, People’s Daily issued a prominent, lengthy report on the public forum over the project’s future, and favorably mentioned that 80% of participants supported moving the project to another location. Immediately, several Chinese newspapers, including Southern Metropolis Daily and Southern Weekend published commentaries supporting this move, while not yet saying the decision is final.
ESWN also translates an article in Southern Weekend in which Xiamen deputy secretary-general Zhu Zilu explains why officials there opted for a public forum to discuss the project.
[Image: The public forum in Xiamen to discuss the PX proect, via Xinhua]
» Read more
- December 20, 2007 10:12 PM
Citizens Air Opinions on the Xiamen PX Project – Danwei
Danwei has the latest on the public reaction to the recent environmental assessment of the proposed Xiamen PX chemical project:
When the environmental report was made public last week, Xiamen Online launched a poll to measure the public’s reaction to the study. The poll was closed the following day after 55,376 of 58,454 votes were cast against the project; the website said that it had neglected to screen for multiple votes cast from the same IP address, rendering the lopsided results invalid.
So this hearing offered a chance to hear a more reliable selection of opinions on the project. One hundred representatives were selected (fifty from the municipal People’s Congress and Political Consultative Committee, and fifty from the general public); fifty-seven got a chance to speak yesterday. Forty-five of forty-nine public representatives opposed the project, as did seven of the eight government representatives who had time to speak.
Lian Yue, the columnist who was one of the major promoters of the anti-PX effort earlier this year, posted summaries of the comments of all the representatives who spoke. [Full text]
» Read more
- December 14, 2007 1:09 PM
Planning Failure in Xiamen – Jianqiang Liu
From China Dialogue:
Residents of the southeast China city of Xiamen (also known as Amoy) had been waiting six months for a review that they thought would decide the fate of the city’s controversial plans for a petrochemical plant manufacturing paraxylene (PX) . They hoped it would mean their families could continue to live in the idyllic coastal city without a toxic chemical plant moving in next door.
The report was published on December 5, and concluded that space was limited in Haicang, the southern district of Xiamen where the plant was slated to be built. The city government should decide, it said, whether to develop the area as a petrochemical industrial zone or as a secondary city centre. The implication was that the industrial zone should not border a residential area. The city should either relocate the chemical plant, or relocate the residents. The report was reassuring, but the locals do not feel safe. The key was not what the report said, but how it was used – and it turned out their initial hopes may have been misplaced. The report may not actually help the decision-making process, despite the wishes of the residents and environmental officials. [Full Text]
» Read more
- December 12, 2007 11:10 AM