Junjie Zhang on Environmentally-Charged Demonstrations in China
How Will China's New Leaders Approach Rising Tide of Environmental Protests?
11/09/2012
Junjie Zhang,
Asia Society
A controversial Chinese petrochemical factory expansion — born from an investment of 55.87 billion yuan (US$ 8.9 billion) by oil and gas giant Sinopec — was suspended by the Ningbo city government after a massive protest in late October. Fearing the environmental and health risks of paraxylene (PX) production, thousands of residents took to the streets.
Ningbo is not an isolated incident. Similar protests against projects involving PX, a key chemical in plastic and polyester manufacturing that can be hazardous to abdominal organs and the nervous system if inhaled or absorbed through the skin, occurred in Xiamen (2007) and Dalian (2011). This is also the third major environmental event in the past year resulting in violent clashes between citizens and local governments — the other two occurred in Shifang over a metals plant and in Qidong over a wastewater discharge project.
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Junjie Zhang is Assistant Professor of Environmental Economics at IR/PS. His research centers on empirical issues in environmental and resource economics. His research topics cover climate change, water resources, and fisheries. He is particularly interested in an interdisciplinary approach that involves both social sciences and natural sciences to deal with environmental problems with policy relevance.
