Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei have detained eight people accused of organizing a mass protest over a planned waste incinerator plant via social media, activists told RFA.
Residents of Hubei's Suizhou city had planned a large-scale protest march onSaturdayafter it emerged that local authorities were planning to build a waste incinerator near their homes, sparking pollution fears.
"Eight people were detained onJune 30for disseminating untruthful information relating to the incinerator construction project in Suizhou, and for incitement to mass protest," the Suizhou Internet Police said via their official account on the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo.
"The organizers are now in police custody, and are being held under administrative detention," it said, in a reference to a punishment of up to 15 days that can be handed down by police to perceived "troublemakers" without the need for a trial.
The would-be protesters were detained in a coordinated raid onFriday, Hubei-based rights activist Liu Feiyue told RFA.
"They were planning an event that went horribly wrong ... I don't think they'll be released soon," Liu said.
"They planned it using friends circles on [smartphone messaging app] WeChat," he said. "They are accused of rumor-mongering."
Liu, who runs the rights website Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, said local residents are very worried about the plans to build the incinerator just a few kilometers from their residential district.
"Plants like this give off pollution, like a foul smell that sticks in your throat and nose, and carcinogenic compounds such as dioxins," he said. "That's what people are afraid of."
Another Suizhou resident, unrelated but also with the surname Liu, said he had planned to join the protest, which was broadly advertised on social media in advance.
"I don't trust the government, because they say one thing and do another," he said.
"If you try to defend your rights, they suppress and persecute you, and it's gotten much worse, to the extent that we can't even try to stand up for our rights now."
"We're just regular folk, and there's nothing we can do about it."
Official narrative doubted
Comments under the Suizhou Internet Police statement took issue with the official narrative, suggesting that online censorship of the debate is also under way.
"It says very clearly on the municipal government website that 'a business agreement has already been signed between the municipal government and the company, indicating that construction of the waste incinerator power plant will go ahead,'" Sina Weibo user @iniuhonghong commented. "This makes it clear that the government has already agreed to go ahead. What untruthful about that?"
An official who answered the phone at the Suizhou municipal government's propaganda department onMondaysaid the project is still only at the talking stage, however.
"All we have done is hold talks about this project; we haven't got as far as whether or not we'll build it," the official said.
He denied that anyone had been detained.
"Some people were misled by false information about the harm that such incinerators can do," he said. "It was a piece of fraudulent information that was being passed around."
The Suizhou municipal government said in a statement on its website viewed by RFA onMondaythat talks about the project are currently at "a preliminary stage," with a memorandum of understanding signed between city law enforcers the chengguan and local businesses.
"A feasibility study is currently under way by all parties," it said.
The detentions come after tens of thousands of local residents turned out in separate protests against a pesticide plant in Hubei's Qianjiang city and a waste incinerator in Xiantao city.
Chemical plants and waste incinerators have sparked numerous protests across China in recent years amid growing public anger over pollution of commonly held natural resources and fears for the impact on human health.
China sees tens of thousands of "mass incidents" every year, most of which are sparked by corruption, pollution and illegal land grabs, but very few make it into the country's tightly controlled media.
Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Kou Tianli for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.