Ningbo residents doubt pledge to halt chemical plant expansion
Ningbo residents put little faith in government's pledge to suspend project
Ningbo residents reacted warily yesterday to the city government's decision to halt the expansion of a Sinopec petrochemical complex, with hundreds of people continuing to protest.
Experts said the stand-off highlighted deepening distrust of government on the mainland.
Ningbo police rejected a rumour that a university student had been killed in a riot in the northern Zhejiang city over the weekend, and said a woman had been detained for spreading the rumour.
Searches for "Zhenhai", the district where the petrochemical complex is located, returned no results on the Sina Weibo microblogging site. And people in Ningbo found they were unable to upload pictures. A foreign cameraman was reportedly taken away by police while conducting an interview.
After a week of protests that swelled into big weekend demonstrations, the city government pledged to suspend the 55.8 billion yuan (HK$68.7 billion) expansion plan pending "scientific debate".
Yesterday it said that plans to increase production of paraxylene, or PX - a chemical that can damage the central nervous system, liver and kidneys - had been completely scrapped. Police also arrested a protester on Sunday night for carrying a knife and pepper powder, it said.
The plant already produces 500,000 tonnes of PX a year.
