On China's Web, Green Activists Grow Bolder

When residents of Shifang, in Sichuan province, started worrying about the environmental impact of a planned molybdenum copper plant, they aired their concerns on the Internet. “Without doubt, Shifang will become the biggest cancer town in years,” said a post on Sina Weibo, one of China’s two Twitter-like microblogging sites. “An overdose of molybdenum may cause gout, arthritis, malformation, and kidney problems,” warned another, according to China Elections and Governance, a website launched by the Carter Center in Atlanta and Beijing’s Renmin University of China.

On July 1, while the censors of the Web remained on the sidelines, thousands of protesters, including students, took to Shifang’s streets. After several days of protests attracted national attention, largely through online video of local police tear-gassing demonstrators, officials agreed to halt the plant’s opening. “The information and pictures shared through Weibo aroused national attention,” says Ma Jun, the Beijing-based environmentalist and founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a nonprofit that monitors corporate environmental performance.