As China Spews Pollution, Villagers Rise Up

Environment-related unrest is spreading. It’s not about old-growth forests; it’s about business practices that are killing people.

HUASHUI, China

Not only was it one of the largest known protests, with an estimated 10,000 police officers and desperate villagers battling in April 2005, but it also proved a rare case in which citizen outrage prevailed over deeply vested interests. A few months ago, the last of the area’s 13 poison-spewing factories was shuttered.

“Without the riot, nothing would have changed,” said Wang Xiaofang, a 43-year-old farmer. “People here finally reached their breaking point.”

LA Times