Bloggence, Cunning, Exile

Environmental Justice Mobs in China

The Taipei Times today reports that "an unruly mob caused such damage to a Taiwanese-financed factory in Guangdong's Chaozhou City that it had to close down temporarily."

This is a new protest in mainland China, not the same as the brazen Huankantou village protest that I blogged about yesterday (see below). The domino effect that the ruling party fears seems to be happening. Despite censorship and a news blackout, word of the successful defeat of the police force has spread and is inspiring other villages. Both protests state that they are against factory pollution which has destroyed local livelihood.

We just witnessed the birth of a new phenomenon in history: angry mob riots for environmental justice. This is again to illustrate the point about our post-contemporary times. Welcome to your future; it just happened yesterday.


See article in Taipei Times at:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/04/18/2003250928

posted by E. Heroux @ 2:45 PM