by Gerd Leipold
China is waking up to its looming environmental crisis.
In the first week of 2008, Greenpeace and sohu.com asked Chinese netizens to vote for the top ten environmental stories in 2007. More than 10,000 people cast their votes, and topping the list was “Rising consciousness among the Chinese public to have a say in environmental affairs”. The news concerned was the public opposition to a billion-dollar chemical factory in Xiamen, a beautiful seaside city in the Southern province of Fujian. Worried about the environmental and health impacts of the chemical plant, thousands of local residents protested in the street in last June. The protest forced the Xiamen government to carry out environmental impact assessment and public hearing, and finally decided to relocate the factory.
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