CHINA-INTERNAL: POLLUTION AND PROTESTS
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At 8.00 am on Sunday, November 1, 2015, over 10,000 villagers demonstrated at the Stone Township, Wannian County Industrial Park demanding removal of the polluting chemical plant. They carried placards saying: "All the people reject pollution, heavily polluting toxic chemical plant get out!" During the protest angry villagers smashed some of the chemical plant equipment in an attempt to shut down the toxic plant, and clashed violently with hundreds of police. The police used teargas to disperse the crowd and then opened fire, injuring many villagers.
An online post by 'Villager Forgotten" said the reason for the protest is that 7-8 chemical plants in Wannian County discharge polluted waste water and the toxic fumes cause villagers to break out in skin rashes, it kills their crops, and cattle that used to be able to drink the river water no longer can because it's heavily polluted. Also some nearby villagers have recently contracted cancer, students at the village school have contracted skin diseases and a large number of river fish have died. Another post by "Laughing Tao" said: "Senior citizens just want to drink clean water. The result of their appealing for this was being teargassed, beaten and shot by the police. All they're asking for is to drink clean water, and this was the government's response." An online post by "Memory Drifting in the Rain" observed that: "The bullshit government unexpectedly called out the SWAT team, opened fire, and beat the common people with batons. Corruption and bribery are the things this government does best. More than 10,000 people demonstrated, the scene is total chaos.
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