The Portrait of a Rumbling Volcanic "Olympic Host" -- Social Tensions
Confront China's Harmony/AP

Social Tensions Confront China's Harmony

By AUDRA ANG
The Associated Press
Monday, October 15, 2007; 1:50 PM

XIAMEN, China -- It was a sight to behold: Thousands of protesters
massed on the streets of one of China's most prosperous cities,
demanding that construction of a chemical plant close to their homes be
stopped.

Demonstrators, many wearing yellow bands of cloth in a show of unity,
faced down a wall of policemen, marching past skyscrapers and shopping
malls as onlookers passed out bottles of water under the hot June sun.

The protest led the government to halt construction of the $1.4 billion
facility, at least for now, and became emblematic of the simmering
discontent facing Chinese leaders.

As Communist Party leaders gathering in Beijing this week call for
creating a "harmonious society," signs abound that the country is far
from it. In China's wrenching transformation from a poor, largely
agricultural society to a prosperous industrial one, the party is
wrestling with changes that have angered many Chinese.

"Farmers have lost their land, workers of state-owned companies have
gotten laid off, people living at the bottom of society struggle in
their daily lives, there is a huge difference in incomes of the rich and
the poor, and a large amount of violence exists," said Ai Xiaoming, a
professor at Sun Yat-sen University and an advocate for human rights and
legal reform.

"These are signs of a disharmonious society," she said from Guangzhou,
the capital of prosperous Guangdong province, where rising land prices
have touched off disputes between farmers and developers.

The tensions pose a challenge for the authoritarian communist
government, which often tries to suppress dissent, and especially for
President Hu Jintao. In power for five years, Hu has made a priority of
distributing the benefits of recent decades of speedy economic growth
more evenly.

He has used the phrase "creating a harmonious society" and a related
phrase, "the scientific outlook on development," as slogans for this
campaign. Senior Communist Party members are expected to weave the
ideologies into a final draft of a document outlining priorities for the
next five years.

"We will spare no effort to solve the most specific problems of the
utmost and immediate concern to the people and strive to create a
situation in which all people do their best, find their proper places in
society and live together in harmony," Hu told more than 2,200 delegates
Monday in the weeklong conclave's opening speech.

Hu's government has set aside billions of dollars in new farm subsidies,
increased spending on social security, education and health care, and
made public efforts to root out rampant corruption. But it is an uphill
task to ease social tensions.

According to the most recent figures from the Ministry of Public
Security, 87,000 "mass incidents" were reported in 2005, including a
deadly clash between police and villagers over the seizure of land for a
power plant. And just last month, thousands of demobilized soldiers sent
to railway training centers rioted in at least three cities.

Then there's the emerging middle class, whose investments in homes, cars
and their children's education gives them a growing stake in society and
an awareness of their rights.

"The amount of demonstrations is growing as social issues of instability
are increasing. People's sense of safeguarding their rights is
awakening," wrote Wen Yunchao, a columnist for the Southern Metropolis
Daily newspaper, who witnessed the June 1-2 protests in Xiamen. "I will
slap anyone who says today's China is harmonious."

In Xiamen, a tropical port city once known in the West as Amoy and once
a haven for pirates and the opium trade, the demonstrations centered
around construction of a Tenglong Aromatic PX (Xiamen) Co. plant in the
coveted Haicang district, a breezy suburb west of the city of 1.6 million.

The plant would have made the petrochemical paraxylene, which is used in
the production of plastics, polyester and film; it can cause eye, nose
or throat irritation and chronic exposure may result in death.

Residents say they were kept in the dark about the project until details
started trickling out in March. Soon, text messages, blogs, Internet
bulletin boards and computer messenger services were abuzz. One phone
message likened the plant to an atomic bomb being dropped on Xiamen.
Talk of protest gathered steam.

"I felt that if everyone went, we could make a change," said Wu, a
32-year-old resident who did not want his full name used for fear of
reprisals and who carried his 3-year-old son to the protest. "If my son
asks me in the future 'Where were you when the project was being built,
Dad?' I would feel ashamed if I had not dared to join the march."

After the protest, the State Environmental Protection Administration
said it was conducting a new environmental assessment for the entire
city, including the paraxylene plant.

Less than two miles from the construction site, many apartments now sit
empty because no one wants to live there, and real estate prices have
plunged. Residents are not sure if their victory was final or temporary.

Telephones at state and city government offices were not answered.
Company officials refused to release any information and hung up the
telephone repeatedly.

In calling for social harmony, Hu seems to be trying to juggle rising
expectations by meeting demands for better living standards while
forestalling any chance for meaningful political change, experts said.

"It does not in any way imply a real democratic change," said Steve
Tsang, an expert on Chinese politics at Oxford University. "If anything,
it pre-empts the need for political reform."

(c) 2007 The Associated Press