BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese city has announced it has scrapped
plans for a copper plant after thousands of people protested the
project’s possible public health risks.
Shifang city in the
southwestern province of Sichuan issued a statement on the Internet
saying it had decided to stop the project.
The city’s public
security bureau earlier warned the public not to use the Internet or
cellphones to organize more protests and asked those who had done so to
turn themselves in within three days or face severe punishment.
Thousands
of people — including high school students — concerned about pollution
the plant would cause began to gather in front of the city government
building and a public square Sunday night, and the protests turned
bloody Monday afternoon after riot police moved in.
Public anger
surged as Internet users circulated photos and videos of riot police
using tear gas and batons to end the protests. Some Internet users said
one protester had died.
"People are very upset. How could the
police beat them?" said a 15-year-old middle school student surnamed Liu
who did not join the protest.
A man who answered the phone at
Shifang No. 2 Hospital said more than 30 people — including police
officers and protesters — were injured but that they were discharged
after minor treatment. The man, who declined to give his name, said no
one had died. City officials also have denied that anyone was killed.
In
a public notice issued Wednesday, the municipal government said a small
group of protesters threw pots, bricks and stones at police officers
and government officials. It said 27 people were taken away by police,
six of whom were formally detained for overturning police vehicles or
throwing objects. The other 21 were released.
The city government had earlier said it would delay the project after the protest and educate residents
about the plan.
Shifang
was badly hit in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake that killed nearly 70,000
and left more than 18,000 missing. City officials say the copper plant
project is needed to help Shifang rebuild its economy.
Liu said parents, classmates and teachers all objected to the project because of its environmental risks

"It will make our home city a town of death," Liu said.
Pollution
problems are a leading cause of unrest as China undergoes rapid
economic development, and citizens have become more outspoken against
environmentally risky projects in their backyards.
Protests often
bring at least a temporary halt to such projects, particularly when they
involve the urban middle class. But local officials who are under
pressure to deliver economic growth often restart them once the outrage
dies down.
Last year, authorities swiftly closed and moved an
urban chemical factory from Dalian in northeastern China when 12,000
people protested.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.