“We have nothing to do with Hong Kong whatsoever,” said a posting on one of the online chat groups that have been used to coordinate protests.Įven before the Wuhan protests began, residents had been complaining online about the smell from a large landfill at the site of the proposed incinerator. Residents seem aware of the danger of being seen by the authorities as having drawn any inspiration at all from Hong Kong. China’s censors have worked hard to prevent information about the Hong Kong protests from spreading broadly, although word of them has been seeping into the mainland.Īnd in the lower-income neighborhood in eastern Wuhan where the government wants to build an incinerator at a landfill, the Hong Kong protests seem to have little or no appeal. There has been no sign that the huge street protests in Hong Kong over the past month inspired the demonstrations in Wuhan, which began on June 28. Numerous young men in short haircuts stood at each street corner after sunset and watched the crowd while wearing identical outfits: black trousers, black T-shirts and bright red vests incongruously labeled “Civilized Construction Tour Guide.” The show of force and the earlier detentions intimidated possible protesters to avoid further confrontations, residents said. Hundreds of people milled quietly around on sidewalks on either side of an avenue, sullenly eyeing more than a dozen large black police vans and buses with tinted windows. Now, facing a declining birthrate, China wants lots of children - but many families don't. Desperate for Babies: For generations, Chinese parents chafed under the country’s one-child policy.Erasing Vestiges of ‘Zero Covid’: The ruling Communist Party is waging a propaganda campaign to rewrite the public’s memory of its handling of the pandemic, which included some of the harshest restrictions in the world.A Surge in Activity: After being battered by the pandemic in 2022, Chinese factories bounced back with vigor in February: Manufacturing activity rose to its highest level in more than a decade.Diplomacy: At many gatherings of global leaders and diplomats, Beijing’s growing willingness to play a spoiler role and side with Russia is causing tension and anxiety.That left the police with a free hand to deal with protesters, who could not flee into shops during sometimes violent confrontations. across a fairly wide area before a protest on Thursday evening, residents said. The government forced businesses to close at 6 p.m. Residents of Wuhan, a city of about 10 million people, say the police have been detaining and taking away some protesters in vans, apparently targeting people who had urged others online to join the demonstrations. Planning for the incinerator started years ago, when the area was mostly rural, and was not updated as a construction boom took place nearby, including at least two schools. Local officials acknowledge being caught off guard by the public backlash. But the statement also warned, “Public security organizations will resolutely crack down on illegal criminal acts such as malicious incitement and provocation.” “The people’s government of the district fully guarantees the participation rights and supervision rights of the masses,” read a statement from the Xinzhou district in eastern Wuhan, the site of the proposed incinerator. Many protests across China have centered on local environmental issues like the incinerator project, and the ruling Communist Party is extremely wary of letting them build into a larger movement. That is particularly true in cities like Wuhan that have expanded to envelop landfills previously in fairly rural areas.Įven as they discourage further protests, the local authorities in Wuhan have tried to assure residents that their voices are being heard. Coming up with a solution is particularly tough in a country like China, where years of censorship and propaganda have left many people deeply distrustful of government assurances of the safety of incinerators.Īt the same time, many in China resent a common alternative: garbage landfills. The dispute here highlights how more countries are having trouble coping with the vast quantities of trash produced by an increasingly affluent global population. WUHAN, China - Days of turbulent street protests against an incinerator project in Wuhan, south-central China’s largest city, have prompted the local government to assure residents it has no plans to build the facility any time soon.īut the authorities have also deployed large numbers of riot police in Wuhan, and are warning of harsh measures if the demonstrations, which have brought thousands of people into the city’s streets, continue.
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