Tag Archives: Yunnan
China’s media report on Kunming’s environmental protests
The English language discussion of Kunming’s ongoing environmental protests should not exclude China’s official media reports. The translation below is of a 5/28 article from the Southern Weekend website.
Yunnan’s Anning City Retracts Notice on Face Mask Registration
from Southern Weekend （南方周末）May 28, 2013
More than 200 copies of a ‘Letter of Guarantee’ have been signed by vendors of advertising services, printing services, copy services, face masks, and t-shirts. These vendors promise to strictly follow national laws and regulations regarding their commercial business and promise not to speak of rumors, create rumors, or spread rumors. They promise not to participate in any form of information broadcasting, forwarding of messages, and not to participate in sit-ins, protests, or demonstrations of any kind. They promise to not print, create, or publish things related to the Anning PetroChina Oil Refinery or the “China-South Asia “Expo or advertisements, propaganda materials, or any materials of negative influence. This “Letter of Guarantee” goes into effect on the day of signing and is valid through June 30, 2013 and sales of all services above must also be accompanied by ID registration of the purchaser. –Official statement from the Kunming Economic Development Zone Industry and Commerce Bureau.
The exposure of Anning’s required ID registration of face mask purchases has stirred up considerable public debate. On the evening of 5/25, the Anning City government’s press office issued a statement saying Anning’s Industry and Commerce Bureau will retract the notice on face mask registration. But according to a report on 5/27, the “Procedure for registration of face mask purchases” was still in effect for much of the Kunming municipality and was not exclusive to Anning City. Registration is still required for printing, copying, and publication services. Continue reading
Law of large numbers: The growing gravity of Kunming’s environmental protests
Kunming’s ongoing protest against the construction of a 10mn ton petroleum refinery 40km from the city center continues to gather attention in China’s domestic media and in the international media. Yet despite continuous coverage of the protest in China’s Global Times, South China Morning Post, the Telegraph, the Guardian, and most recently the Atlantic (among many other media outlets), questions concerning the gravity of the protests continue to pop up in online chat forums: Does a protest of 1000+ Chinese citizens in a city of 7 million have impact? Given the numbers, does the average Kunming citizen know about this issue? Can protests of this scale force changes to policy agendas?
ExSE’s answer to all three of those questions is an unequivocal YES. Kunming mayor Li Wenrong would have not made an impromptu engagement with protesters last Thursday if he didn’t see the movement as a legitimate challenge to the status quo. He followed through on his promise to open a Sina Weibo account by noon on 5/18 and since then he’s gathered more than 75000 followers. Further, an online poll created after the initial 5/4 protest exceeded its limit of 100,000 responses within three days. The poll asked a simple yes or no question: Should there be a PX plant in Anning? An overwhelming majority of 80% ticked “no.” It’s no surprise that the poll’s weblink was eradicated last week. Admittedly, there is no way of knowing whether Li Wenrong’s 75k followers are mostly from Kunming, and online polls are never without bias; but the large numbers undeniably say something and suggest that the 2000+ protesters are representative of a much larger group of concerned citizens. Continue reading
Cleaning up Kunming’s Dianchi Lake, Part 2
Zhou Dequn’s post, “Cleaning up Kunming’s Dianchi Lake” discussed the origins of and contributing factors to the lake’s pollution. His post also briefly discussed a few of the measures used to raise the quality of Dianchi’s water in recent years. The marked improvement of Kunming’s groundwater quality was recently profiled in this New York Times video.
PHOTO: Dianchi’s southern shoreline
