Riot police fire tear gas in power plant protest protest

Riot police used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the protesters in Haimen in Guangdong province, and the demonstrators threw stones, water bottles and bricks, said a 27-year-old protester surnamed Chen.

It is the second major protest in two weeks in a corner of coastal southern China that has been seeing periodic unrest over the past few years, primarily over land disputes.

In much of Guangdong province, conflicts have been intense because the area is among China’s most economically developed, pushing up land prices.

In Wukan, a village to the south-west of Haimen, protesters drove local authorities from the area nearly two weeks ago over a land dispute.

In Haimen, the protesters think that an existing coal-fired power plant has contributed to what they say is a spike in cancer cases and heavy pollution in the seas, a serious problem for a town where fishing is a source of livelihood.

“People are worried about the pollution that will be released by the [new] power plant,” said Wang Xiebo, a fisherman reached by phone.

Another protester, a man surnamed Yang, provided a similar account of the protest and subsequent clash.

“Two or three of us fainted on the ground when they fired tear gas at us,” Mr Yang said. “The government offended us again and again by trying to build a power plant. This is going to affect our future generations. They still need to live.”