hen I was lined up waiting to cross the Macao border into China for the first time, I was honestly scared. From everything I’d read about the police and the central government in the papers, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were going to just arbitrarily arrest me, jail me, and execute me. I was being paranoid, I guess, because I finally got through immigration without incident and took my first step into the mainland.
As time went on I began to realize that it was actually OK to criticize the government in public here, that emails and instant messages were most likely not being monitored. Even as an artist, you can get around censorship somehow because the Chinese art market is soaring and the government is proud to finally have a valid cultural export again. Usually, if you mind your own business and not theirs, daily life is pretty much free. Sometimes, however, crossing paths with the government is unavoidable. That’s when you find out just how serious it can be.
I moved to a seaside city called Xiamen, which was formerly known as Amoy, at the beginning of this year because it is rated as one of the top three most scenic and comfortable places to live in China. I think it’s more likely that this is one of the top three “livable” places left due to the country’s recent development, which has left the environment apocalyptically devastated.
This past March, information began leaking out that a Taiwanese-run chemical plant was secretly being constructed in Xiamen. According to many scientists, the chemical Paraxylene (PX), which the plant would be producing, is a highly polluting and carcinogenic petrochemical that would damage the surrounding environment as well as increase the chance of fetal abnormality during pregnancy. Not a good thing. In addition, according to text messages that were being forwarded from person to person around the city, if there was an accident at the factory, it would be like “dropping an atomic bomb on Xiamen Island.” In the past, the company had plans to build a factory in Taiwan but was rejected by their own government because it was deemed too harmful and unsafe. Apparently though, it’s OK for China even though the plant is being built less than a mile from the nearest residential area and only four miles away from downtown Xiamen. According to international standards, PX manufacturing should be kept at least 62 miles from any major urban settlement.
TO BE CONTINUED:
THE GREAT FIREWALL |
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Anonymous, on Oct 28, 2009 wrote:
youtube, facebook, and myspace, as well as blogspot and others are already blocked. when was this written? |
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| jesse, on Aug 25, 2009 wrote:
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| jesse, on Aug 25, 2009 wrote:
no way |
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| jesse, on Aug 25, 2009 wrote:
wow |
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| jesse, on Aug 25, 2009 wrote:
wow |
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| jesse, on Aug 25, 2009 wrote:
111 |
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