Chinese villagers protest local environmental damage.

• Author: Chafe, Zoe
• Position: ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE - Brief Article

In a defiant display of community activism, rural farmers in China's Zhejiang province blocked roads and clashed with military forces earlier this year to draw attention to local industrial pollution. The farmers alleged that toxic gases released from 13 industrial plants near their village, Huaxi, have caused high numbers of miscarriages among residents and that water pollution is so extreme they can no longer grow healthy crops.

The protests began March 24 when elderly farmers erected a roadblock to stop traffic to the factories, which opened in 2002 to produce fertilizer, dye, and pesticides. Under Chinese law, farmers do not own their land but instead receive a 30-year lease from the government. Despite legal protections, their property is often appropriated for industrial use. A 2004 report published in China Chemical Daily News detailed how an apparent lack of oversight of the Huaxi plants had left creeks foamy and discolored and the air foul-smelling and noxious.

Two weeks into the blockade, police were ordered to clear protesters...