No deaths in Guangdong power plant protests
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China.org.cn, December 23, 2011
No one died during the protest against the local planned power plant over pollution concerns, a local Communist Party of China (CPC) official said Thursday in Guangdong Province.
Hundreds of villagers from the fishing township of Haimen in the Chaoyang district of Shantou City gathered again on Thursday near a toll gate on an expressway to protest for a third day, and police officers were dispatched to maintain order.
Chen Xinzao, secretary of the CPC Chaoyang District Committee, said: "No one has died since the incident took place." Local officials confirmed that police detained five people Wednesday evening for alleged vandalism.
The Shantou city government decided Tuesday evening to suspend the project. According to Xinhua, no clash between villagers and police occurred at the site Thursday.
"The construction of the new power plant must pass the environmental impact assessment and it must win the approval of Haimen residents," Chen said.
The protest was triggered by the Fengsheng Electricity Investment Company's planned expansion of a coal-fired power plant.
Villagers complained that the current power plant had led to a rise in the number of cancer patients, the deterioration of the environment and a drop in fishing hauls.
The Shantou government required the local environmental protection agency to look into the pollution situation in regards to the power plant.
"The environmental impact assessment on the new plant has yet to be completed, and the feasibility study is still going on. Therefore, the construction of the new plant has not begun, as villagers have said," Kuang Jian, director of the Environmental Monitoring Branch of the Shantou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, told Xinhua.
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