June 28 – July 5, 2019
Location: Xinzhou District, Wuhan, Hubei
Participants: Estimates from various news sources vary, running as high as 10,000
News media reports claimed that up to ten thousand residents of Xinzhou District, Wuhan, took to the streets for at least one whole week from June 28 to July 5 to protest against the site selection of an incineration plant project. It is unclear as of this writing when the protests ended and whether the local government has yielded to public demand to terminate the incinerator project.
The Chenjiachong landfill, full to bursting with solid waste from over 300,000 residents in Yangluo subdistrict and nearby areas over the last decade, has been slammed for causing air pollution affecting nearby residents and even contaminating underground water. In May 2019, a report from a development research institute in Wuhan briefly revealed the government’s plan to replace the landfill by an economy-eco industrial park that would allegedly combine recreation and incineration. Wuhan’s urban management administration later responded to an online inquiry in June: an incinerator slated for construction in September would replace the landfill scheduled to cease operation in 2020. The decision, which only became public knowledge through the online response, did not receive any public comments.
On June 28, the Xinzhou District government announced on its official Weibo account the decision to hold off construction until a consensus among residents is reached. Residents concerned about cancerous gas emission and the exacerbation of Yangtze River pollution massed on the streets for days to voice objections to the proposed incinerator while holding banners with slogans such as “air pollution will harm the next generations.” Riot police with shields and batons were deployed to disperse protesters. In a letter issued on July 3, the Xinzhou government agreed not to push through the incinerator project without first conducting an environmental assessment and receiving public comments. It also reiterated that “the project will never start if people disagree with it.” The letter or other updates on the project, however, cannot be found on the Xinzhou government website nor its Weibo account as of September 2019.
Incinerator proposals in China have long been a major source of environmental concern, sparking scores of incidents of unrest despite authorities’ promise to put them on hold, including the Yunfu protest Dui Hua previously reported in June. While the incident garnered widespread media attention in early July not long after its outbreak, censorship on social media has prevented Wuhan locals from circulating updates about the protest. The status of the incinerator in Xinzhou remains unclear. Chinese state media cited anonymous analysts as saying that insufficient communication between the government and public, and the lack of transparent pollution data were the major reasons for public resentment. State media also commented that “allowing residents to participate in accessing and supervising the project from the beginning could help ease concern and build public confidence.”