Thirty Thousand Chinese Protest Coal Plant

Police Use Tear Gas and Batons | Social Media Blocked

The protest was held on 20 December 2011 on a highway in Haimen, a seaside town in China’s wealthy southern province of Guangdong.

The video below better depicts the activity at the protest site.

Gillian Wong, Beijing-based reporter for the Associated Press reported:

Thousands of people besieged a government office in a southern Chinese town Tuesday and blocked a highway to demand a halt to a planned coal-fired power plant because of concerns about pollution, protesters said.

Riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the protesters at the highway in the town of Haimen in Guangdong province, and the demonstrators hurled rocks, water bottles and bricks in return, said one of the protesters, a 27-year-old man surnamed Chen.

In Haimen, some protesters clashed with police, leaving dozens hurt including women and police. Some in the crowd speculated that one man who was lying on the ground bleeding from his head had died, but that could not be confirmed, Chen said.

“We don’t have any weapons, only mineral water bottles and we threw them at the police but the police were using batons to beat people up,’’ Chen said in a phone interview. He estimated that around 20,000 people participated in the demonstration.

The protesters had first gathered in the morning at the office of the Haimen government and demanded a meeting with the township party secretary, Chen said.

A woman who answered the phone at the Haimen government office said the protesters had left and then hung up.

The protesters think that an existing coal-fired power plant has contributed to what they say is a spike in cancer cases and heavy pollution in the seas, a serious problem for a town where fishing is a source of livelihood.

“People are worried about the pollution that will be released by the (new) power plant,’’ said Wang Xiebo, a fisherman reached by phone.

Another protester, a man surnamed Yang, provided a similar account of the protest and subsequent clash.

“Two or three of us fainted on the ground when they fired tear gas at us,’’ Yang said. “The government offended us again and again by trying to build a power plant. This is going to affect our future generations. They still need to live,’’ Yang said.

Photos circulating on China’s popular Twitter-like microblog Weibo showed a crowd of protesters amassed at a large government building and then at a highway, as well as riot police with plastic shields and helmets lined up in tight rows. Some photos showed protesters and police injured and bleeding.

After three decades of laxly regulated industrialization, China is seeing a surge in protests over such environmental worries.

In September, hundreds of villagers in an eastern Chinese city near Shanghai demonstrated against pollution they blamed on a solar panel factory. In August, 12,000 residents in the northeastern port city of Dalian protested against a chemical plant after waves from a tropical storm broke a dike guarding the plant and raised fears that flood waters could release toxic chemicals.

Chinese Negotiating Tactic?

AMSC Lost Almost 50% of Market Value in One Day

NECN | BBJ Report | Negotiating in China | Apr 14, 2011

Kyle Alspach discusses his Boston Business Journal article in this NECN video.

American Superconductor (AMSC) tanked when Sinovel Wind refused to accept a shipment earlier this month. The stock opened at $24.88 on April 5, 2011 and sank to $14.47 by the closing bell. AMSC continued to shed value and closed at $12.81 on April 15, 2011. We hope to see a recovery soon.

NECN frames it’s report:

“Learning to do business abroad means learning the culture of the country you’re in. It’s something American businesses have discovered while trying to negotiate in China. Now if only they could get their investors to understand too.”

Ouch! That’s quite a learning experience.

UPDATE: June 1, 2011

AMSC closed today at $8.11—a single day loss of over 24% market value directly attributable to the Sinovel situation. AMSC has shed $16.77 of its market value—more than 67%—since we first reported.

Insult to injury: RECHARGE reported yesterday on Sinovel’s good fortune:

China’s largest wind turbine maker, Sinovel, unveiled its 6MW prototype yesterday, marking another milestone in the country’s rapidly developing wind industry.

Shares in Beijing-based Sinovel jumped the most since its January listing in Shanghai, rising 8.8% to 60.99 yuan ($9.40) as of mid-morning Tuesday.

Congratulations, Sinovel.