Win for Chinese protesters | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

SHANGHAI: Authorities in eastern China have halted plans by a Japanese paper company to build a waste-water pipeline into the sea after opposition from local residents mounted and a protest on Saturday turned violent.

Thousands of people gathered from about 5am local time in Qidong, a city of more than 1 million people across the Yangtze River from Shanghai, to renew protests against the project by Oji Paper Co, which they said would cause pollution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.The crowd dispersed after the mayor of Nantong, which administers Qidong, announced the cancellation, Xinhua said.About 10,000 Qidong residents joined the protest, in which computers, desks and chairs in a government building were damaged, Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported.The protesters also overturned two cars, an AFP photographer said.Demonstrators seized bottles of liquor and wine from the offices along with cartons of cigarettes, items which Chinese officials frequently receive as bribes, according to messages on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like service.Searches including "Qidong" were later blocked Saturday on Sina Weibo, which has more than 250 million subscribers.Opponents had gathered even after Qidong’s vice-mayor, Zhang Jianxin, pledged on Friday to listen to residents’ concerns and the local government said it was suspending the project.The demonstration is the latest in a series of confrontations between local governments and residents over pollution concerns linked to industrial projects.Thousands of people in the southwestern city of Shifang protested for three days earlier this month over the construction of a molybdenum copper plant, and demonstrators in northeast China’s Dalian last year succeeded in getting a chemical factory shut down on environmental grounds, according to reports by state media.In a speech to leaders and officials of the...